Plane in the Sunset
by Godshatter
Summary: Several years after the series the world of Prestor is begining to change. For the moment these changes are slow, but soon the world will be thrown into chaos at the hands of the Exile once more. Warnings include: Language, Lemon, Violence
1. Chapter 1

**Plane in the Sunset **part I

by: godshatter

" _Meet me in outer space_

_I will hold you close_

_If you're afraid of heights _

_I need you to see this place " _

-'Stellar' by Incubus

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_Why am I so cold? Where is this place?_

The Earth spun lazily as it hung in the midnight sea of space.

_Alone. Lonely. _

High above the slowly healing ground- past the top of the sky, hung a question poised but not yet understood.

_Who?_

The question was simple enough, but meriting a thousand different answers it would prove to be difficult to answer. To be aware before being conscious of the self can be very frightening indeed.

The question hovered suspended in thought for a while but soon drifted away. There would be time enough to learn. There was all the time in the world.

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The vanship engine rumbled in the back of Claus' mind while it wondered freely in the open air. These long courier flights always ended up being endurance races, letting his mind drift kept him awake. Another noise was trying to penetrate his consciousness. Slowly Lavi's voice came into focus.

"What?" shouted Claus into his radio.

"I said the next marker is to the east!"

"What's the bearing?"

Lavi paused for a second before rattling off their new bearing into her radio. Claus dipped his head in acknowledgement and adjusted his foot peddles- yawing the vanship onto its new course.

"You let your mind wonder too much, Claus," Lavi chided.

"It keeps me awake."

"You need to find a new way to keep yourself awake."

Claus shrugged and double checked his course and heading.

Silence settled back between them. Lavi peered up into the clouds and tilted her head back against her seat letting the sounds of the jet-stream wash over her. Claus said something but his radio didn't catch it, and it was lost in the slipstream. She lifted her head up to ask what he had said but decided against it. It was nice just to relax and let Claus fly. They were at least a half hour from the next marker and Claus knew the way home practically by heart now. They had been traveling too and from the Imperial Capitol and Norikia several times a week for the past two months. A lot of things had happened since Exile had dove back into space two years ago. The world was changing.

Time got lost easily while flying. Lavi let her mind wonder in the clouds for a while before sitting up straight again and checking her compass and watch. She pulled her flight log out and scratched a few notes in it before returning it to its place under her seat. "What do you think Al is doing?" she asked idly.

"I don't know," replied Claus, "Probably checking the sky to see if we are home yet."

Lavi checked her fuel gage and cringed. "Claus, I think we are going to have to find somewhere to refuel soon."

"Already?" Claus sounded surprised.

"We have a leak it seems."

Claus grumbled something under his breath. "I knew those guys that ran into us back at the airfield hit us harder than they said they did."

Lavi thumbed through her charts for a few minutes and found a sky barge's location. "Claus," she said, "At the next marker we need to head south, there is a sky barge about twenty minutes from it. We can refuel there and maybe find the leak."

"Got it," replied Claus.

"Al is going to be worried." Lavi sounded anxious.

"Nothing we can do about it, we have to put down or crash."

"I know."

"It's not like we haven't had to stopover unexpectedly before. She will be fine. She won't really start to worry until tomorrow if we aren't home."

Lavi knew what Claus said was true. Al was capable of taking care of herself for a few nights (and often had to) but that never stopped Lavi from feeling guilty whenever they were late by more than a few hours, let alone a whole night.

They made it to the marker quickly enough but Lavi was still keeping an eye on their fuel gage. They would either run out or they would make it, but she still checked it every few minutes.

Daylight was beginning to melt into deeper hues of orange and red. Lavi yawned and checked her watch again. It was getting well into the evening and the sun was just touching the horizon.

"It will be nice to sleep."

"Huh?" said Lavi, breaking her gaze from the rosy colored sky.

"It will be nice to stop and get to sleep, my legs are cramping a little."

"Mmm," was Lavi's response. She was getting drowsy as well.

The sun had sunk deep under the horizon by the time the Claus spotted the sky barge, its running lights shone brightly against an ever darkening cloud filled sky. "There it is," he said to Lavi.

The barge was gargantuan, several cruisers were already docked in the massive mooring booths. This was an old barge, its paint was badly faded and everything had a tired look to it, even the neatly kept cruisers looked like large drowsy beasts chained up for the night.

Claus maneuvered vertically and skimmed up the rust patched wall of the barge and slid up onto the upper vanship deck. There were a number of vanship berths lining the starboard side with the port side open to the sky. A taxi way and a launch strip bisected the length of the ship and tapered down to a large hanger at the bow that housed large lift elevators. Claus nudged into one of the empty berths and set down hard.

Lavi clenched and unclenched her jaw a few times after their landing and undid her harnesses. Claus was in the front of the vanship jostling with his own straps. Lavi stood up and eased herself down over the side and landed on the tarmac deck with a delicate _thump_. Walking out on the taxiway she noticed that only a few of the vanship berths were occupied. She saw a handful of civilian vanships and a military type transport that the marines used.

Claus was busy pulling out Lavi's and his overnight bags from under their seats. Bags in hand he hopped down over the side of the vanship and landed heavily on the deck with a grunt. Lavi was standing out on the tarmac and turned to smile at him. The lights for their berth flicked on and she was suddenly washed in light. Claus hefted their bags up and strode up next to her. "I don't think we will have a problem finding a room," she said, gesturing at the empty berths. Claus nodded and headed off towards stern hanger where a neon light that read "Office" glowed in flickering red.

The evening was cool and a breeze was wondering over the deck. Claus stopped for a few moments and put their bags down, enjoying the open night air.

"C'mon, Clause," said Lavi, taking him by the hand and leading him on towards the office. Claus slung their bags over his back and allowed himself to be towed.

The office was tidy and brightly lit if not a little on the drab side. Copies of "Vanship Digest" and "Engines Unlimited" were stacked in loose piles beside the desk occupied by a man looking to be in his mid fifties with strong streaks of silver in an otherwise jet black main that draped down over his shoulders.

"What can I do for you folks?" he asked.

"We need a room for the night," said Claus, "And tools and about 400 liters of fuel."

Lavi frowned. "We aren't exactly bone dry," she said.

"Close enough," replied Claus.

"Ah," said the man, "Engine problems?"

"Leak," corrected Lavi. "We had a small accident on the capitol airfield."

"I see, I see." The old man rummaged through his drawer and produced a key. "Well, fuel and tool rental will run you about a hundred-eighty, that being said how big a room do you two want?"

"What's cheap?" Lavi turned to Claus but Claus merely shrugged.

"Cheapest I got is a one bed one bath. It's gonna run you about thirty-six a night for the two of you."

"That'll be fine," said Claus, handing the man some credit notes.

"Come up here any time after seven and I'll give you a workshop key so you can get your tools. There's another hundred credit deposit for the tools though, when you return the tools and the key you get it all back."

Claus nodded and shouldered their bags again as he and Lavi were led back out into the hanger and down a small lift.

"Not too busy around here are you?" asked Claus, trying to make conversation.

"Nah, it always seems to go in spurts, plus the race season is pretty much over too. We'll be back in good shape in another two months or so."

The lift ground to a halt after a few floors and the doors opened. "This is one of three dormitory floors we have for single vanships", said the man, as he led them down the hall. "Mess hall is the floor above. Below you are the other two vanship dormitories and below those are barracks for the warship crews. As far as entertainment goes, we have a bar and an arcade for gambling- nothing fancy mind you. Mess hall opens at seven in the morning and closes at seven in the evening." The man stopped in front of room number 29 and handed Claus a pair of keys. "Take care," he said, and strode off towards the lift.

Lavi took one of the keys from Claus and unlocked the door. Claus shuffled through behind her with each of their duffel bags and tossed Lavi's on the bed and dumped his on the floor.

"We might as well go to bed now," said Lavi. "The mess hall is closed and we only have the small toolbox back in the vanship, it's not like we can get anything done until tomorrow."

Claus nodded, then walked up to the large port hole window and peered out into the darkness. "I'm going to go check on some things first," he said.

Lavi shrugged and started unpacking the few belongings she had in her duffel.

Claus drew the curtain across the window and told Lavi goodnight, and then slipped out the door into the cool passageway. Their room was only a few doors down from the lift. Claus pushed the button marked "hanger deck" and rode the lift up into the night air.

There was still a constant breeze over the dock. The sky was a patchwork of clouds and starlight. Claus was completely alone on the hanger deck as he began walking across the long stretch of tarmac that filled almost the entirety of the deck. Making his way towards the stern he let his mind drift again. It didn't drift very far. He was tired, and the empty night did wonders to slow his thoughts and ease the tension out of his body. Piloting a vanship was amazing, borderline euphoric sometimes, but out on the deck Claus could really just slip away into the deepening night.

Lost in empty thoughts, Claus had hardly noticed that he had already come up to the stern of the barge. The hum of the engines was more like a growl and the deck vibrated under his boots. He stopped and leaned up against the railing for a while, his thoughts stretching out into every direction.

Eventually his mind found its way back home and he turned to leave the stern. He probably would have just slept right there on the deck if it wasn't so cool and if Lavi wouldn't be wondering where he was if she woke up and he wasn't there in the room with her. He left the stern.

Claus passed by the vanship berths and noticed a new arrival- a sturdy looking gentleman with sharp features and dark gray hair cropped very short was helping a young woman out of the navi's seat, his flight goggles were dangling around his neck. The girl eased herself out onto the deck and looked directly up at Claus. The only thing Claus noticed were her eyes, they were the deepest green he had ever seen. The girl smiled at Claus and gave him a wave. The older gentleman turned and nodded after noticing Claus.

After saying something inaudible to the girl, the man walked out to Claus. Extending his hand, Claus clasped it and they shook. "Emit," said the man.

"Claus."

"You a navi as well?" asked Emit.

Clause shook his head, "No, sir," he said. "Pilot."

Emit arched an eyebrow slightly but otherwise he didn't react. His brown eyes were slightly cloudy and didn't give away much of what he thought.

"Not many pilots as young as you," he said.

Claus looked a little embarrassed. "No, sir, not many".

"However," started Emit again, "You aren't exactly a pup either, how old are you son, fifteen?"

"Seventeen" replied Claus.

"Close enough. Still, that's young to be piloting a vanship."

Claus shrugged and stood mute, not really sure what to say next. Emit turned and motioned for the girl to come over to them who up until then had been sitting on the stubby wing of the vanship. She hopped off her perch and strode up quietly to Claus and Emit.

"This is my daughter," said Emit, pride leaking into his voice as he put his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm Henna." In the dark Henna's features were very delicate. She was shorter than Claus, probably shorter than Lavi as well. Her hair was a dark color that Claus couldn't discern and she had a pixie-like face that was dusted with freckles.

Henna extended her hand and Claus shook it gingerly.

"Kind of a limp handshake," said Henna.

Claus felt his cheeks warming and was thankful for the darkness. Emit snorted. "He has a fine handshake; he just didn't want to break your little fingers," he said. Henna winked at Claus.

"We should go get a room," said Henna, turning up to face her father. Emit nodded and maneuvered Henna back towards their vanship. "Good to meet you, Claus," said Emit before heading back to the vanship berth, his boots clicking on the tarmac.

Henna turned and waved at Claus, her father's arm draped around her shoulder. Claus waved back, Henna's eyes keeping his all the way back to their berth. The pair grabbed some bags from out of their vanship and extinguished the light, their dark forms casting even darker shadows as they made their way across the flight deck towards the office.

Claus found himself alone again on the tarmac. He glanced down at his watch and decided it was time to head back to the room and try and get some sleep.

Lavi couldn't sleep. Actually, Lavi didn't want to sleep, not yet. It was strange that Claus had gone back out. Without tools there wasn't really anything he could do. After Claus had left she had stripped down to her underwear and climbed into bed after opening the curtain about half way. When half an hour passed without Claus coming back she had started to worry. It was just so unlike him to go off on his own like that.

Lavi didn't like Claus being gone like this. She wasn't really sure where he went and that was beginning to upset her. She wasn't really surprised by her sudden need to be close to him, to feel safe. She curled up and wrapped her arms around her second pillow and clutched it against her chest. Another half hour passed and Lavi started thinking about getting dressed and finding out where Claus had gone.

The door lock tumbled softly and Lavi heard the door open on well oiled hinges. Light from the hall spilled into the room for a moment before shadow collapsed into its place. Lavi could see Claus in the dim moonlit room. He sloughed off his flight suit and piled it into a neat pillow before taking off his undershirt and collapsing onto the floor. He sighed and rolled over to face the bed. He saw that she was staring at him.

"I bet I still sleep better than you do," said Claus, rapping his knuckles on the ground. Lavi smiled back weakly. "You could sleep anywhere," she said.

Claus closed his eyes and his breathing quickly shallowed into even, sleep-laden draws. Lavi saw that he had also taken his work clothes off and drawn them over himself like a blanket. She rolled away from the side of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Lavi fought sleep off a little longer and listened to the hum of the ship and the steady sighs of Claus' breathing. Claus snorted once and fumbled around with his covers. Lavi turned her head to see that he was awake again. He got up and headed into the bathroom and closed the door.

Claus flushed the toilet and washed his hands. Sleep was still tugging at him as he opened the bathroom door and stepped back into the room. Lavi was standing in the middle of the room in her nightshirt and panties. "All yours," he said to her, closing the door behind him. Lavi shook her head and took him by the hand. "I don't want you sleeping on the floor anymore," she said quietly.

"I've been sleeping on the floor for years on our stopovers," replied Claus, sleep weighing his voice down.

"I don't care, I never really thought about it until tonight. I want you close to me."

Surprise registered on Claus' face for a heartbeat and then vanished. "Okay," he said.

Lavi led Claus to their bed and had him climb in first. Claus slid back until his back was against the side bulkhead. Lavi picked up the second pillow and put it down next to Claus' head and climbed in next to him. Claus put his arm around her waist and she coiled her arm over his naked shoulder and buried her face in his neck.

"You're warm," Lavi said after a while.

"It's because you're small," Claus replied.

Lavi pushed herself up. "I'm not that small," she said, her face hovering over Claus' chest.

"You're smaller than I am."

Lavi sat up and lifted the covers off them and sat back on her knees. In the moonlight she could see Claus' pale body. Neither of them got much sun; always tucked into their flight suites. Claus had really filled out in the last two years though. She had even seen him get into a fight a few months ago. "Okay, I'm smaller than you are."

Claus smiled and reached out to put a hand on her thigh. His hand was deliciously warm on her skin. Lavi put both of her hands on top of his. Claus sat up, several scars on his shoulders looked like dark claws clutching his skin in the pale light. Lavi reached over and ran her hand over his right shoulder. She knew he had a whole patchwork of scars running down his back.

Lavi was silent. Claus unwrapped his hand from hers and drew his arm up around her waist and scooted himself closer to her. "It wasn't your fault," he said.

Lavi knew it was her fault.

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Lavi lost her temper in the market when a group of thugs from one of the gangs had been beating up on the old lady who sold water. They had told her that water was clean and free for everyone now. They didn't care that she was old and had been selling her own brew of mineral water and herbs since she was a girl. The gang busted her shop and broke most of her jars and flagons. Claus was a dozen stalls away when Lavi started shouting and throwing things at the thugs. She figured there were enough people around that she might be able to get the crowd in on helping her.

She was wrong.

The gang quickly turned their attention to her and the people around her all scrambled to get away. Lavi saw everyone run but it was too late for her to get away- the gang was already on her.

"You little bitch!" shouted one of the thugs right before slapping her fiercely across the face. The force of the blow stunned her and knocked her to the ground. The biggest of the group strode over to her hauled her up to her feet and glared at her.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, throwing shit at me and my boys in OUR street?" He had bellowed the word "our" so loud little pieces of spittle peppered Lavi.

Lavi was terrified but her mouth was on autopilot. "You pricks are scum, beating up on an old lady for doing the same thing she's been doing all her life. You think that just because you're big and all wear that stupid compass tattoo on your biceps you have a license to be complete assholes to whomever you want!"

All four gang members bristled. "Watch your mouth, whore. You don't know who you're messing with. All members of the Devil's Star gang wear our compass insignia with pride."

Lavi sneered, "So what, does the compass point to gay? I mean, real men wouldn't beat up old ladies now would they?"

The big leader didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Gay, huh? I'll show you just how gay I can be. I'm going to teach you a lesson girl. I'm going to teach you right here in street."

Lavi finally realized her mouth had gotten her into some serious trouble. She looked around to see if anyone would help her. The shops around her had all drawn their curtains and the shoppers had all moved down to stalls farther away from their little group. Lavi was also wondering where Claus was.

The leader took off his belt and wrapped it across his open palm a few times. "Girl, I'm going to fuck you so hard you aren't going to be able to walk right for a week. And then when I'm done, my boys are all going to get a turn, because that's how we are in the Devil's Star. We share. And do we have a lot to _share_ with you."

Lavi started to cry. She never though anything like this would ever happen to her. "I just wanted you to leave the old woman alone," she managed, her voice cracking.

"That's it, cry those delicious tears". The leader leaned over and licked a long streak of Lavi's cheek. "It's a train wreck, you can't stop it; you can't look away. You have the best seat in the house." The leader growled and slapped Lavi hard on her behind. Another one of the thugs moved in behind Lavi and grabbed a handful of her hair, twisted it and pulled hard forcing her to bend down.

"No, please, stop, don't do this." Tears were streaming down Lavi's face and she choked on a sob. Another gang member stepped up beside her, grabbed her pants, and yanked down. Lavi swung out as hard as she could and connected with the man's groin. The man grunted and slumped to the ground, mumbling and grumbling incomprehensively. The man holding her hair smashed his other hand into the back of her head. Lavi heard the leader laugh. Her body suddenly felt very heavy. Lavi slumped forward and the man holding her by her hair let her fall to the ground. She felt her pants get torn the rest of the way off and then her panties sliding slowly down the length of her legs. She lay there on her stomach, her arms sprawled out in front of her and her naked legs and bottom exposed to the mid-day warmth. Her head was starting to swim in the warm air. She was rolled over onto her back and her legs pushed back. She tried to scream but she could only mumble and cry.

There was a muffled snap somewhere. Lavi looked up and saw one of the men holding his leg at the knee and rolling around on the ground, it was twisted at an impossible angle. There was someone standing over him. He wasn't as big as the other men. The stranger turned and lunged sideways at the leader. The leader dodged and smashed his fist into the side of the new man's face. The force of the blow whipped the man around. It was Claus. Claus spun with the momentum of the blow and immediately threw himself at the leader again, this time punching the man in the side. The leader grunted and strafed away. Claus kicked out with the flat of his boot and caught him in the pelvis. Immediately Claus closed in and savagely punched at the man's sides and ribs, trying to connect with his soft organs. The gang leader shoved Claus away with his body and charged. He caught Claus off balance and slammed his fists into Claus' stomach and chest. Claus yelled and smashed his fist into the leader's throat. The leader fell to his knees and grabbed his throat, struggling to breathe. Claus drop kicked the man in his face, resulting in a wet crunching sound. Blood poured out of the man's nose, throat and eyes as he slumped over.

The first part of the fight had been quick enough that the other two gang members hadn't had much time to react. Claus turned away from the stricken leader, blood dripping from his own nose and mouth. Before either gang member could do anything Claus was already in between them. He lashed out at one with his boot, catching him in the stomach, then turned and slugged the other in the face. Back and forth Claus pummeled the two gang members. As soon as one was struck he turned to the other, hammering them before they could recover. Finally one of them yelled and shoved Claus away and both gang members were upon him. They grabbed his arms and pinned him up against the wall. Claus kept kicking and yelling but it was clear he was beginning to tire. One of the gang members dropped Claus' arm and slammed his elbow, his whole body really, into Claus' rib cage. Claus screamed and head-butted him in the face. The man Claus head-butted staggered away leaving his hand free. Claus reached out with his free hand and pulled the other gang member towards him, head butting him in the face as well, but this time savagely. Claus literally bludgeoned the other man with his own head and face before slugging the man in his jaw.

By now the fight had worked its way into an alley of sorts. It was behind one of the larger machine shops. Lavi was still dazed in the street watching the fight. She saw the first thug Claus had head butted recover and pick up a brick. Claus had his back to him, fending off another series of blows from the second man, the one Lavi had punched in the groin. The second man swung at Claus and missed by a wide margin, Claus planted one foot on the ground between the man's legs and as he grabbed the man by the arm to twist him to the ground the first gang member ran up and smashed Claus in the face with a brick. Claus' lights went out. He slumped to the alley floor and lay motionless.

"Claus!" Lavi croaked.

The two gang members looked over at Lavi. "Watch what we do to him now, bitch." They hefted Claus up and dragged him over to a nearby fence- an electrified fence. They both picked up wooden poles lying on the ground and propped Claus up against the fence, pinning him there with the poles.

The darkness Claus had been drifting in suddenly turned into a searing white light so bright it hurt his eyes. The pain quickly spread into the back of his head and down his back and into his limbs. It felt like someone was flaying layers of flesh from him. His muscles were trapped in a furnace and his blood was boiling inside his veins. His heart felt like a crushing mass of pain every time he breathed. He screamed. Blood and fluid gurgled out. He couldn't move.

Lavi saw the men holding Claus up against the electric fence with poles. She staggered to her feet and picked up a cinderblock. The men didn't see or hear her over the sparks and animalistic sounds coming from Claus. She lifted the cinderblock as high above her head as she could and bashed it into closest gang member's skull. He dropped his pole and Claus lurched sideways and fell away from the fence, his clothes and body smoking. The second gang member turned to Lavi and just stared at her. She was naked from her waist down and blood was seeping down her neck from the back of her head. Tears and dirt smeared her face and there was more blood trickling down her milky white legs. "Stop," she whispered, and collapsed onto Claus' body.

"What a waste of time." The last standing gang member glared down at Lavi and viciously kicked her and then turned to pick up his compatriot by the scruff of his neck. "Let's go," he said. The man Lavi had hit in the back of the head was still a little woozy and stumbled as he walked away, assisted by the other man. At the end of the alley they picked up the third member, the one whose leg Claus had broken. He took his time getting to his feet and the three of them shuffled off.

Lavi pulled Claus away from the fence but stumbled and fell after only a few feet. She just didn't have any strength in her. So she lay down next to Claus and cried. The pain she felt was so far beyond tears that she choked on her own sobs. The world was not the beautiful and hope-filled place she thought it was.

Claus coughed but didn't move. That was good, he was breathing. Lavi didn't know what she should do. She tried standing to go get help but her legs wouldn't work. She collapsed back onto Claus. _Why can't I be strong? Why can't I help anyone?_ Instead she lay beside Claus and draped one of his arms across her naked belly, his fingers brushing against her thigh. She wrapped her own arms around his waist and neck and held him close to her. She wished she could hold him closer. She wished she could hold him so close that the world would never separate them. Suddenly the desire to be close to Claus was so overpowering that Lavi gasped. She held him so tight her whole body shook. She shook with sobs and she shook with pain and she shook with frustration. Nothing she thought of would satiate her need to be near Clause, to be with him. Her need was like a ferocious appetite, a hunger that burned coldly and smoldered in her stomach and cramped her muscles. "I need you," she breathed into his neck.

It was evening by the time Claus woke up. Lavi had spent the whole time next to him. Claus groaned and tried to sit up.

"Claus?" Lavi sounded weary and far away. Lavi curled herself tighter around him. "Claus, are you alright?"

"Shhh." Claus breathed in sharply. "Everything hurts Lavi, please be quiet for a minute."

Lavi was silent. She propped herself up and leaned over Claus and delicately ran her fingers through his hair. "You protected me," she whispered.

Claus coughed again, blood leaked down the side of his mouth. "I'm really messed up," he wheezed.

Lavi started to cry. "I'm so sorry," she said, her tears dropping delicately onto Claus' cheeks.

Claus sighed. "Help me up," he said quietly.

"Are you sure?"

"If I can't walk then you have to go get help."

Lavi stood and then bent down to help pull Claus to his feet. She pulled hard. Claus grunted and managed to stagger to his feet. He took a tentative step forward and staggered but managed to keep his balance. "Everything hurts," he said again- more to himself than to Lavi.

Claus clenched and unclenched his fists and jaw. He wasn't sure if he would go crazy from pain or get dizzy and pass out from it first. Claus turned slowly to face Lavi. He finaly saw her in the light. She had dirt, blood, and tears smeared down her face and neck. He looked her up from her legs and realized she was half naked. He saw that her legs were scraped, they still had good color though, and her tummy was still tight- still pretty, and exposed by her short shirt like it always was. Her thighs were soft and joined in a delicate orange burst.

"You're really beautiful, you know," said Claus, fumbling with his belt and pants.

Lavi didn't know what to say. She just stood mute while Claus took his pants off. He had forgotten to take off his boots though. When his pants got stuck he sighed and sat back down on the ground and slowly untied his boots and worked them off, followed by his pants.

"Wear these," he said, handing his pants and his belt to Lavi.

Lavi hugged Claus and kissed him on the cheek. She took his pants and put them on then cinched his belt around her waist.

"I can't believe no one called for help or tried to stop the fight," said Claus. Lavi merely shrugged. She staggered a little after pulling Claus back to his feet. He was in just his undershirt and boxers now.

"You were out for a long time, Claus," said Lavi, reaching her arm out to help steady Claus as he walked.

"Why didn't u go get help?" he asked, sounding only slightly disappointed.

"I tried," replied Lavi. "When those thugs left I tried to get up to go get help but I couldn't. My legs wouldn't work. My voice didn't work either. So I crawled up next to you and wrapped your arms around myself and lay there until you woke up."

"You're stronger than that, Lavi," was all Claus said.

Lavi didn't reply; she just concentrated on holding back the ocean of tears and emotions welling up inside of her.

They walked slowly. Towards the street entrance to the alley they passed the body of the gang leader. He was still lying in the same position Claus had left him, his body looked sallow and insects were beginning to buzz around his mouth and nostrils.

Lavi felt a wave of nausea but fought down the urge to vomit. Claus stopped in front of the corpse and regarded it silently for a moment before kicking it in the head.

"Claus?" Lavi was stunned. Claus was always stoic unless forced into reacting, but he never lashed out like that.

"Fucker deserved it," he muttered.

Lavi took him by the hand and pulled him gently away. "Lets go home Claus, we need to get a doctor to look at you."

That night Lavi called one of the night doctors and had him look over Claus, who had collapsed onto her bed as soon as they got home. The doctor said that the fence had been extremely low amperage and that Claus hadn't suffered any lasting damage to his nervous system. However, his muscles would still feel the effects of the shock for some time and of course his back would be viciously scarred for life. He also had several cracked ribs. After checking Lavi's wounds over and negotiating a fee, he left, telling her that Claus wouldn't be able to work for at least a couple days.

Lavi slept next to Claus that night.

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Claus held Lavi tightly against himself. She had been sobbing quietly for several minutes. Finally her tears stopped and she dried her eyes and leaned back from him, taking a moment to compose herself. Claus leaned over sideways and reached across the bed for the floor, realizing that he was too far back he sat up again and eased himself around Lavi and got up from the bed. Claus grabbed his undershirt from the floor and put it on before easing himself back into bed. He tucked himself up against the bulkhead again and Lavi pressed her body against his, wrapping her arms around his neck and chest. Claus yawned and held Lavi until he drifted into sleep.

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Al woke up in the middle of the night. The wind was blowing fiercely, outside she could hear something banging repeatedly into Claus' workshop. Getting out of bed she padded down the hall in her socks and nightshirt checking to see if Claus and Lavi were back. The kitchen, living room and Lavi's room were all empty. Claus' room was still a mess of lumber and metal- Claus and Moran hadn't even really started on it yet, they had already agreed to completely finish Moran and Dunya's home first since they were married and starting a family.

Al went back into the kitchen and cut a few slices of cheese from the dwindling wheel on the side counter. Lavi would probably be going to the grocery again as soon as she and Claus got back home. They still had plenty of meat and vegetables but Lavi had an affinity for cheese. From the kitchen window Al saw that the workshop door was ajar and was banging back and forth on its rails. Al grabbed Claus' spare key chain from the kitchen and went out the back door.

The night was warm, but the wind was strong and made her shiver. She walked across the back yard to the workshop and opened the door enough to try and work it back onto its track. After a few moments of working the door back and forth she finally got it back on its track and pushed the door all the way open to let the moonlight flood the workshop floor. Al stepped inside and looked around to make sure everything was where it should be. She knew she didn't really know where everything went but she still felt better after checking and seeing that none of the bigger pieces of equipment had been disturbed. Closing the door, she double checked the padlock before snapping it closed. Satisfied, she turned and walked back into the house and locked the back door behind her.

---------------------------------------------------

Lying in her bed again Al listened to the wind outside, luckily she didn't hear the workshop door resume its racket. Sleep soon settled over her.

Daylight funneled into the room through the porthole. Lavi blinked sleep away from her eyes and yawned. Beside her Claus stirred. Lavi rolled onto her side and put her head down next to him. Lost in sleep he breathed evenly. She wasn't going to go back to sleep but she still didn't quite feel like getting up. She delicately traced around Claus' face and neck with her finger tips. After a few minutes his eyes slid open silently and after a moment sleep cleared from his pupils; his lips tugged into just a hint of a smile.

Lavi and Claus lay together for a while without saying anything. Eventually Lavi rolled over and checked her watch. "We should probably get up," she said. Claus yawned and nodded at the same time. "Alright," he said, rubbing his eyes.

Lavi untangled herself from Claus' arms and from their sheets and stood up, running her hands through her tangled red hair. It was still cropped short but was frazzled from sleeping. The room was chili and she shivered.

Claus stayed in bed and watched Lavi as she dressed, his eyes following the delicate movements of her body. He watched how her legs shimmied back and forth while she put her pants on and noticed the tight lines that her panties made against her inner thighs at the joining of her legs and against her butt when she turned around. Claus was enamored with how she moved. Lavi headed to the bathroom but tripped over Claus' boots and fell. Claus laughed. Okay, maybe she wasn't terribly graceful, but Claus still loved watching her.

Lavi picked herself up off the floor and felt her cheeks heat as she blushed. She had seen Claus watch her as she dressed and it made her very self conscious. It wasn't exactly something she was used to.

By the time Lavi opened the bathroom door Claus was out of bed and standing in front of the window, his undershirt off and draped over himself. Lavi could see the strength in his shoulders; even under his mutilated back she could see bands of muscle. Lavi put her hands on Claus' shoulders and pressed herself up against his back. "I'm sorry about how I reacted last night," she said softly.

"Don't worry about it," he said, still staring out the window. "You're a kind person, that's why you are how you are and act how you act."

Lavi was quiet, but she leaned forward and gently kissed the back of Claus' shoulders. "You're strong," she said. Claus chuckled.

"Silly girl," he said. "I'm not strong."

"You protect me," replied Lavi, her lips still brushing against his shoulders.

"That only makes me fortunate."

Lavi held on to a confused silence. Claus didn't continue his thought. She could feel his breathing, her own breath lingering on his skin.

"I'm fortunate to have you to protect," Claus finally said.

Lavi was silent but traced her index finger over his back and the sides of his arms with her palms. "Let's go eat," she said. Claus nodded.

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Lavi followed Claus up to the mess hall. It was actually on the top deck overlooking the vanship hangar deck and airstrip. The mess hall was large enough, about the size of the galley on a destroyer. Metal benches and tables were lined up in neat rows that stretched the length of the room. The kitchen was located off to the side; there were several large steaming pots as well as fresh cut bread spread out along a rail that ended in a stack of trays and plates.

The room itself was only about a quarter full, several of the long tables were occupied but the vast majority of the seating was open. Claus picked up a tray and moved down the rail grabbing bread, a wedge of cheese and poured himself a bowl of what looked like stew. Lavi followed and grabbed much the same. At the end of the line an older woman smiled at Claus and handed him a glass of tea. Lavi asked for water.

As Claus and Lavi were setting their plates down Claus looked up and saw Henna and her father come in. Henna waved at him and got in line behind her father for breakfast. Emit filled his tray up and walked over to the table Claus and Lavi were sitting at. "Mind if we join you?" he asked.

Claus, his mouth full of food, motioned for the two to sit. Emit regarded Lavi and smiled. "I'm Emit," he said. "I ran into Claus last night on the flight deck right after we landed for the night." Lavi nodded. "I'm Lavi," she replied.

Claus finished chewing his food and swallowed. "This is his daughter, Henna," he said. Lavi turned to Henna and saw her wink at Claus, who grinned back sheepishly. Lavi put her hand on Claus' leg. Claus turned his head and looked at Lavi, who quickly looked away.

"So where is it that you're going?" asked Claus, draining his tea.

"Back home," replied Henna, "Back to the capital."

"We were ferrying a few things to Duke Maddossein," said Emit.

Claus nodded. "He has helped a lot with Norikia's development after the war. He has single handedly paid for all kinds of stuff, I'm surprised he can afford to keep it up."

"So, Claus, how did you get into flying?" asked Henna, putting her plate aside and leaning a little towards Claus.

Claus looked at Lavi and then back at Henna. "Lavi and I have been flying together since we were little. Our parents died when we were both very young." Claus turned again to Lavi hoping she would be able to contribute to their story. Lavi sat mute, though her grip on Claus' leg shifted and tightened just slightly. "Our fathers were on a vanship team," continued Claus. "One day they accepted a mission with a ten star rating. We never saw them after that."

"What happened to them?" asked Henna, leaning even closer towards Claus.

"They were lost in the grand stream," said Lavi coldly.

Henna looked over at Lavi, "I'm sorry," she said. She looked at Claus who was looking down at Lavi. Lavi looked down at her plate. "Let's go, Claus," she said.

Emit stood up from the table. "I'm sorry we upset you," he said. Henna still sat watching Claus. Emit reached down and touched her on her shoulder. "Let's go, Henna. Let them get back home. We need to get going as well." Henna stood up. "Goodbye, Claus, I hope I run into you again someday." She smiled and winked at Claus again as she left.

Claus tried to stand up as well but Lavi's hand was still on his leg. Claus put his hand on hers and sat quietly next to her. The people at the table across from them were laughing noisily at some crude joke. There was a large single pane window not too far from where Claus and Lavi sat. Outside they could see the flight deck. The day was bright and already there was a slow trickle of vanship crews heading out to their berths, some would fly straight out, others took time to refuel or even pop open their engine compartments and try to get some repairs done.

Lavi squeezed Claus hand. "Let's go home," she said, and stood up.

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Claus was up to his armpits in vanship engine. The morning had turned hot and he had stripped down to just his workpants and boots, his shirt was draped over the wing of the vanship. Lavi was underneath looking at the centrifuge and claudia injection lines. Lavi closed up the large spherical centrifuge and re-attached the fuel lines and field direction splines. "Everything looks okay down here," she said. "The leak must be in the engine." Claus grunted his acknowledgement. Lavi stood up and set her wrench down. "I'm going to go back to the room and pack our stuff." Claus grunted again. Lavi took her gloves off and lay them down next to Claus' shirt. She walked over to Claus and put her hand on his back. Claus stiffened ever so slightly and then leaned back from the engine and turned to face her, sweat dripping down from his hair and beading on his neck. Lavi smiled weakly at him. "I'm going back in," she said, her hand still on his back.

"Okay," he said, turning his attention back to the engine.

Lavi pulled her hand away and turned to walk away. Claus took her by the wrist and stopped her. "Okay," he said again, only this time softly.

Lavi squeezed his hand and smiled at him. He smiled back.

Claus turned back to the engine and started sorting through his options for a leak.

With his head literally buried in the engine, Claus couldn't hear the footsteps approaching him from behind. "Hey, Claus," said a female voice from behind. Claus pulled his head out from the engine compartment and turned around, peering through oil stained goggles, plasma torch in hand.

Henna was leaning on the trailing edge of the wing. "I was hoping I could catch you before you leave," she said.

Claus tilted his head a little and pulled his goggles down around his neck and thumbed off the torch. Henna stepped out around the wing and walked up to him, biting gently at her lower lip. She took the torch from his hand and put it down on the engine cowling.

------------------------------------------------

It hadn't taken Lavi very long to pack, just a few minutes to straighten hers and Claus' things out and then pack them into their bags. After packing she took a minute to sit on the bed. She knew it would probably take Claus a while to find the leak. She also knew she should be the one digging through their vanship's innards. She was the mechanic, not Claus. Actually Claus was a fine mechanic, but he was an even better fabricator. While Lavi would work on the vanships Claus was always tinkering with their spare parts or creating entirely new ones. If there was something they didn't have, Claus could usually make it. It was a skill he hadn't really known he had until they bought their workshop two years ago and started building their house right next door. Claus seemed to excel at anything requiring fabrication- be it using metal, wood, or anything else really.

Lavi got up and grabbed their bags and left. Claus had already paid for their room and tool rental. On her way back to the hangar she dropped their keys off in the key return box next to the office door.

Passing back outside she blinked in the bright daylight. Out in the open sky everything always seemed so much brighter. A light breeze whipped over the hot tarmac as she made her way back to their vanship berth, both of their bags in hand- there always seemed to be wind wherever they went.

Before she even got back to their berth she could see Claus sitting on the vanship wing, that girl they met earlier was beside him, running her hand over his back. Lavi wanted to run up the girl and scream at her, to shove her away from Claus. Instead she walked up to Claus and took him by the hand and gently tugged at it, "I need to talk to you," she said. Claus looked confused but hopped off of the vanship wing and followed Lavi away.

"What's wrong?" he asked, once Lavi stopped at the tail of the vanship.

Lavi turned around and stared right into Claus' eyes. "I want us to go home," she said.

Claus frowned. "We really need to find that leak first."

"Claus, please. I want to go home now." Lavi had completely lost the metal in her expression and suddenly looked very vulnerable. She stepped up to him and put her hands against his chest. "Please, Claus."

Claus sighed. "It's going to take me a while to close everything up and get it running again. I really might as well just find the leak now while the engine is open."

"Please, Claus. Take me home." Lavi continued to plead.

Claus was clearly getting irritated. "Lavi, what does it matter if we leave now or in a few hours? That leak needs to be found and plugged. The sooner the better."

Lavi put her arms around Claus neck. "Clause, I don't want to be here anymore."

"Alright," he said. "I don't know what's gotten into you but I'll get us underway. It will go faster if you help though."

"Okay," said Lavi, stepping away from Claus. He was expecting her to look relieved but instead she just looked tired.

Claus walked back over to where Henna was still standing. "We're going to go," he said. "I'm going to have to refuel and fix the leak at home. It doesn't look like they have the equipment that I need here."

"Are you sure?" asked Henna. "I'd be willing to bet the bargemaster could dig up some heavier equipment if you asked him to. For a fee, I'm sure."

Claus shook his head. "Don't worry about it, he said. It's gonna take me a while to close all this back up though. You should probably head out."

Henna nodded and leaned up to kiss Claus. Her lips lingered against his for a moment and her tongue flecked up against the tip of his briefly and then she turned and walked away.

Lavi appeared from behind the tail of vanship and stood a few paces behind Claus, watching Claus watch Henna leave. Claus turned around once Henna was most of the way to the office and saw Lavi standing off behind him. "Ready to close up shop?" he asked.

Lavi nodded. "How much of the engine is undone? Can I start pumping fuel yet?"

Claus shook his head. "Not yet." He turned back and grabbed some tools out of the box sitting on the vanship wing. "I still can't believe you want to go home before finding this leak."

Lavi was silent.

Claus sighed, scratched the back of his head and fell to piecing the engine back together.

After twenty-minutes Claus stuck his head out from the engine cowling and looked around. Lavi was sitting in her seat looking over her charts and gauges. "I think we should hold off on fueling until we are about ready to go," he said.

Lavi looked up from her charts. "Say what?"

"I said we should hold off on fueling until we are ready to go," repeated Claus. "If we fueled now we would just start losing it to the leak."

Lavi blinked and frowned. "Okay," she said.

"This would probably go faster if you came down and helped," said Claus, gripping a spanner wrench and twisting it around in his hands.

Lavi put her charts down and eased herself out of her seat and hopped down onto the tarmac. "Sure," she said, moving over next to Claus she scanned over the engine quickly to see what she could do the fastest. Claus was already busy re-mounting the battery. Lavi picked up a socket wrench and started re-sealing all of the hoses to the air pump and then vented the air tank before filling it again to check the pump and the integrity of the tank valves.

It took them another thirty minutes to finish up with the engine. Claus closed and secured the engine cowling while Lavi grabbed the fueling boom from an overhead gantry and pulled it down into a hard contact with the fuel intake.

"Think we will end up with enough to make it home?" asked Lavi, straddling the top of the vanship.

Claus shrugged. "I have no idea. You're the one who wanted to get out of here."

Lavi didn't reply; she just looked away.

Claus didn't really know what was going on with Lavi. Under normal circumstances he would do anything she asked of him but leaving before they had even found the leak and not giving him any real reason for doing so bothered him. He had thought about asking her what was wrong but ended up deciding against it. If it was something she had wanted to tell him, she would have told him. However, the fact that they were possibly putting themselves at risk really bothered Claus. He might end up asking her after all.

Claus took his work gloves off and started putting his own tools away before gathering up the barge's tools to return to the office. Lavi finished fueling and unlatched the fueling gantry from their vanship and wenched it back up to its rack in the ceiling. It slid into place with a hard click. Lavi hopped down from the top of the vanship and stood next to Claus while he put the tools away.

Claus finished packing the tools up and hefted the large bag of borrowed tools over his shoulder and turned around and marched out of the vanship berth. Lavi caught up with him and walked beside him.

"So are you going to tell me why we are going to risk crashing just to get out of here sooner?" asked Claus.

Lavi reached out and took Claus by the hand but didn't say anything. She didn't really know what to say. To be honest she was worried about her own reaction. Is this how she was going to react every time they ran into a girl who seemed interested in Claus? She had reacted similarly when Tatiana and Claus had been shot down over the Dragon's Fang.

"At least tell me it's a good reason," said Claus

"I don't know," replied Lavi, softly. She looked at Claus and wanted to say that she was sorry, to say that she trusted him, and to say that they should stay and get the job done. But nothing came out. Claus' eyes were hard, but his expression softened and he sighed.

"I just," Lavi stopped and struggled with her thoughts, trying to formulate them into something she could tell Claus. She couldn't do it just yet. "Can we talk about it when we get home?"

"Alright," said Claus, letting go of Lavi's hand and draping his arm around her shoulder. Lavi took hold of his hand again and leaned into him slightly.

When they got the office the old man they had talked to the previous night was outside smoking a cigarette. "Done already?" he asked.

Claus nodded. "We're heading out, thanks for the tools."

"Aye, thanks for the business. You can just set the tools down here with me, I'll take care of em for ya."

"Thank you," said Claus.

The old man nodded and pulled out his billfold and gave Claus his deposit back. "Come back again, we always have warm beds and hot meals."

"We will." Claus turned to Lavi, "Alright," he said, "Let's go home."

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The trip home had been uneventful after leaving the aerial barge. As they flew over Norikia Lavi could still see how much of the town was still rebuilding from the war. There were scaffoldings and small cranes everywhere. The construction had even extended to the upper ledges and rim of the crater where many new homes and business were being built. The new city water works was clearly visible sitting in the base of the cliff, as was the huge pump stations and power plant. They looked like giant gray cubes growing out of the brown earth of the crater wall and floor. All throughout the city Lavi could see where the power transmission lines had sprung up like sprawling spider web. Flying over the side opposite of where their home was work crews were busily digging pipeline for the second half of the city (their side already had water and power).

Duke Maddossein had pledged to help make Norikia the most modern city in all of Prestor. At first most of the nobility had tried to stop him, saying that it would disrupt social order and classes. One such noble had even gone so far as to call for the revocation of Maddossein's Dukedom. Of course the Empress wouldn't hear of it, so Maddossein was allowed to move forward with his projects and soon other Anatore lords saw the success of Norikia and began formulating plans of their own for their own territories and cities.

Lavi spotted their own home in a group of houses situated on the upper tier. From the air the houses looked like large brown boats lost in a sea of green. There still weren't many trees though.

Claus killed their airspeed and the vanship dove for the ground.

"Air break!"

Lavi pulled hard on the air break and felt the vanship fight its own inertia as they slowed and touched down onto the soft grass. Claus eased the engine into a high idle and let the vanship float about a meter off the ground.

----------------------------------------------------

Alvis was in their workshop making sure nothing had broken loose during the night when she heard the vanship land. Outside she could see Claus float the vanship as it idled above the ground. He hopped out and landed on the grass between the house and the workshop and pulled open the second workshop door. Alvis waved at him and he waved back. Claus ran back over to the vanship and grabbed hold of a heavy handle on the nose and pulled it into the workshop. Lavi killed the engine and the vanship sat down with a thump.

"Claus, Lavi!" shouted Alvis, running up to Claus and hugging him before catching Lavi in another hug just as she was getting out of the vanship.

"Everything okay last night?" asked Claus while he stripped out of his flight suit.

"Yeah," replied Alvis. "There was some awful wind though, the workshop door came loose and started banging around."

"Oh?" asked Lavi. Walking over to the front of the workshop she grabbed hold of the heavy door and tried to jostle it around. "Seems fine to me," she said.

"That's because I got up in the night and shoved it back onto its track."

"Good girl," said Claus, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Alvis grinned.

"Alright," he said, we need to find that leak.

Lavi nodded.

"Can I help?" asked Alvis.

Claus looked back at the vanship and thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Not this time," he said. "I'm sure something will come along that you can help me with."

"Okay," said Alvis, clearly disappointed.

Claus heaved open the second workshop door and let even more daylight spill into the cavernous interior.

The workshop was large, though not exactly huge. Both side walls were full of lengths of metal tubing and sheets of stamped and scrap metal. There was also a lathe, several upright toolboxes, a table saw, a band saw, and a back room with Claus' more portable tools. The center floor was taken up by a second vanship (it was actually Moran's), several tables and a large jig along with their own vanship.

Alvis walked over to Lavi and leaned over close to her, "I'm still working on the math problems you gave me," she whispered. "Don't tell Claus that I'm not done yet, okay?"

Lavi giggled, "Alright," she said, "I wont. But you need to get it done so I can check over it."

Alvis nodded once and ran back inside.

A few months after Claus and Lavi's decision to keep Alvis with them the three had decided that she would need at least some sort of education. At the time standard schooling wasn't really an option since all of the schools were down in the middle and lower tiers of Norikia and everyone who lived on the top tier was either of the Nobility or wealthier vanship crews, both of which hired private tutors for their children. When Lavi had suggested that they get a tutor for Alvis, Alvis has simply refused. She complained that she had had quite enough of tutors from her time under the protectorate of the Hamilton family. So, Claus and Lavi did as best they could to educate the girl until they could find a way to get her into a regular school. Being vanship pilots they already had a good grounding in mathematics and physics as well as geometry. Claus had even gotten into the spirit and bought some text books for himself and began teaching himself calculus and vector based mathematics.

Alvis however, was still learning simple algebra and reading a few history textbooks and was happy to be doing so.

She found her math book and papers where she left them on the kitchen table the night before. Alvis rummaged around for a minute in some of their drawers before finding a pencil and then got to work.

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Lavi sat straddling the top of the vanship's engine cowling trying to work the mounting for the mass airflow processor loose. "Why can't it be somewhere simple?" she asked more to herself than to Claus.

Claus was standing beside the vanship's massive engine scratching his head, wrench in hand. "If we don't find it soon I'm going to get worried, if it isn't leaking from the carburetor than our options are going to get pretty lousy," he said.

Lavi grunted and heaved the large processor loose so she could lift it out and get to the carburetor below it. She unbolted the top cover plate and peered into the mechanism. "I found it, Claus," she said. "The choke plate is broken and the float bowl has a pretty large crack in it."

Claus sighed. "I can definitely make a replacement for the choke plate, but I don't know about the bowl, that's some pretty high grade metal right there."

"What about just welding shut the crack?"

"Eh, I can try it."

Lavi started unbolting the carburetor and lifted the large block of metal out of the engine. "Oi, Claus, give me a hand here, this thing is heavy."

Claus grabbed the carburetor from where Lavi had it perched on the top of the vanship and lugged it over to one of his workbenches.

Lavi heard Claus curse under his breath. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"The other side of the frame is pretty beat up," he said, tapping at it with a small hammer. "It looks pretty bad."

Lavi came over and looked over the part. "How do you think it got like this?"

Claus shrugged. "Probably from when we were in the Grand Stream, we haven't done a lot of work on this part of the engine since then, it's not like it's readily accessible," he said. "It probably took a beating then, and developed some fissures in the metal and over time the pressure just tore it up."

"Hmph, we didn't have a leak at all then, just low pressure, we were burning a lot more raw fuel."

Claus nodded. "You might want to check the delivery systems and re-check the centrifuge, who knows what that kind of fuel mixture did to it."

"Hopefully nothing," said Lavi, sitting down on the vanship wing.

"Actually," said Claus, looking over the broken carburetor again, "We were leaking fuel, the float bowl had to be leaking at least some fuel."

"Well, at least now we know what the problem was."

Claus snorted, "Too bad it took us till after lunch to find it. I wish it was just a cracked fuel line."

"Wha, it's after lunch?"

Claus nodded. "Took us two hours to find this, besides it was almost lunch time when we landed anyways."

Lavi's stomach growled. "Er, I guess I wasn't really paying attention. I'm starving all of a sudden."

"Heh, why don't you go make lunch, I'll try and figure out what to do with this."

"Alright," said Lavi, taking off her gloves and running a hand through her hair. "Is there anything in particular you want?" she asked.

"As long as you make it, I'll eat it," he said, still staring intently down at the broken carburetor.

Lavi shrugged and walked out of the workshop and back into the house.

Inside, Lavi found Alvis sitting at their kitchen table, book open, and writing in her notebook. The young teenager looked up from her work, "Hey," she said.

Lavi smiled, "Hey."

"Is Claus still in the workshop?"

Lavi nodded, "I think he is trying to figure out what to do with our broken carburetor."

"Cabruer-what?"

"Carburetor, it mixes air and fuel inside the vanship," said Lavi, going through their cabinets trying to find some cheese.

"If you're looking for the cheese," said Alvis, "We're almost out."

"Oh," said Lavi, disappointed. "I guess I'll have to go get some more soon." She shrugged, and pulled out some bread and started slicing chunks off of the salted meats hanging over her counter.

"Lavi?"

"Hmm?"

Lavi put her knife down and turned to face Alvis, but she had put her pencil down and was staring out the window at the workshop.

"Al?"

Alvis turned and blinked a few times. "Sorry," she said. "My mind wondered off for a second."

Lavi chuckled. "I see," she said. "You were going to ask me something."

Alvis looked down at her book and fiddled with her pencil briefly. "What is Claus? To you, I mean."

Lavi reached down and picked up a head of lettuce and stripped off a few layers. "I don't understand," she said.

Alvis licked her lips and chewed on them. "When you think of Claus, and then you think of you _and_ Claus, what is it that you're thinking of?"

Lavi smiled to herself. "Claus is my…" she trailed off and put her knife down again. "He," Lavi stopped herself and turned around and leaned against the cabinet with her hands on its edges. "He's the world to me," she said, facing Alvis.

"What are you to him?"

Lavi pursed her lips and looked away. "I don't know," she said.

Both girls were quiet for a minute then Lavi asked, "Why?"

"I don't know," replied Alvis. "It's just that, It's just that the two of you have been acting differently towards each other for a while now."

"Oh?" Lavi looked a little confused.

"Well," continued Alvis, "I don't really know when it started, but you two are more…. affectionate, I guess, with each other."

Lavi didn't respond, she was thinking back over the last few weeks and months. She knew what Alvis was talking about- she just didn't know how or why it started. "I guess you're right," she said. No, she knew why, she just didn't remember how or when. They just started being more physically affectionate. Never anything serious though.

Lavi turned around and resumed making their lunches. "I'm not surprised you picked up on it," she said. "For some reason the things we do just seem to come naturally."

"Do you love him?" asked Alvis.

"Yes."

Lavi was a little startled with how readily her answer came. It was something she had thought about, certainly, but it was always something she kept hidden away, protected. And yet, all it had taken was Alvis' simple question.

"Why are you asking me this?"

"I just… I just wanted to know, I guess," replied Alvis, fidgeting with her pencil still. "Will you tell Claus?" she asked.

Lavi wanted to say yes. She knew the answer _was_ yes. But for some reason she was mute. She finished making their sandwiches and gave one to Alvis. "Have you had any fruit today?" she asked.

Alvis shook her head.

Lavi grabbed an apple and cut it into eighths and put them on a napkin next to her sandwich.

"Thanks, Lavi," chirped Alvis.

"You're welcome," replied Lavi, putting her hand on the younger girls head. "Work hard," she said. "I'm going to go bring Claus his lunch."

"You should tell him," said Alvis when Lavi was halfway out the back door. Lavi turned and gave the girl a small, sad smile and went out, the door clicking behind her.

----------------------------------------

Lavi found Claus leaning back in a chair with his boot up on one of his tables, sifting through some papers, the broken carburetor on the table in front of him. He ran an oil stained hand through his hair, leaving gray streaks on his forehead.

She came up behind him, put a hand on his shoulder and leaned across him to deposit his lunch on the table. "How's it coming?" she asked.

"Meh, I'm gonna try welding it up, but I just don't know if it will hold. You should get started on Moran's vanship."

"Don't forget, you still need to replace some of its piping," replied Lavi, putting her other arm around his neck and squatting down to bring her head down to his shoulder level.

"Yeah, I'll probably do that later today, or tomorrow at the latest. I'm just thankful he hasn't been bugging me about that. We really need to get that thing back to him, that isn't good business."

"How long will it take for our own repairs?"

Claus shrugged and reached over for his sandwich. "I don't really know," he said, his cheeks bulging with food.

"Get to work soon," she said and touched her lips briefly to the side of his neck.

"Will do," he replied, his mouth still full of sandwich.

Lavi brushed her hand through his hair quickly and turned to look for her tools.

---------------------------------------------------

Claus pulled his goggles up to inspect his weld. He was really going through a lot of wire closing up the gaps in the float bowl.

"Claus?"

"Hey Alvis," replied Claus, not turning around. He put his goggles back down and resumed his welding. All he could see was a bright spark of fluorescent green burning through the darkness of his goggles. "What's up?"

"Moran called, asking about his vanship."

"Heh, yeah, we're running behind on it. Did he sound mad?"

Alvis shrugged. "No, he was just curious. I asked if he needed it for anything soon and he said 'no'". She had to put her hand up to shield her eyes from the intensity of the weld.

"Go grab some eye protection if you're going to be sticking around," said Claus, pulling his goggles up to his forehead and putting down his mig welder.

Alvis knew she should have grabbed some goggles off the hooks by the door when she came in but had just kind of forgotten. Besides, Claus wasn't mad, he just wanted her to be safe. She grabbed a smaller pair of clear goggles and grabbed Claus' spare welding mask when she got back to his work bench. From behind the deeply polarized mask Alvis watched the constant eruption of sparks and embers.

"I love sparks," she said.

"Me too," said Claus. He reached out and let his hand be washed in the hot metal erupting from the luminous welds. "Only the big ones hurt- the ones that linger."

Alvis waved her hand quickly through the bright spray and pulled her hand back. She smiled when she didn't get burned and waved her hand through again. "Neat," she said.

Claus nodded.

Alvis watched Claus weld for a few minutes. She even took the goggles off for a moment and watched the cascade of embers and sparks reflecting against Claus' polarized goggles. "You know," she said. "You look kind of evil, Claus, with those deep black goggles and the sparks erupting in their reflection."

Claus snorted. "Evil?"

"Mhmm."

Claus looked up from his weld but left is goggles down and curled his lips into a half grin, half snarl and leered and Alvis.

"Now you just look demented," said the girl.

Claus sighed and pulled his goggles up. Alvis smiled innocently at him. "Would you like to help me with Moran's vanship?" he asked her.

"Really?" she asked.

Claus nodded. "Yes, really," he said.

Alvis went and put Claus' mask away and let her own goggles dangle around her neck. Claus changed his welding goggles out for some clear ones and coiled up the tubing to his mig welder and dumped it on top of the half meter tall machine.

----------------------------------------------------

Lavi was working busily on the port side of the engine when Alvis and Claus came up to Moran's vanship.

"Alvis is going to help me with the piping," said Claus. Alvis nodded excitedly and grinned.

"Do you know what you need to do?" asked Lavi.

"Mhmm, Claus already gave me a list of lengths of pipe to cut."

"Good girl." Lavi gave the younger girl a thumb's up and watched Claus giver her a leather jacket and gloves. "Be careful with your fingers," he said to her as he led her over to their band saw.

Claus went over to the side wall and started grabbing lengths of some thin pipe and loaded it into his arms. After dumping it off next to the saw table, he went and got a small squirt tube of lubricant and placed it on the saw table.

"What is the craftsman's motto?" he asked.

"Measure twice, cut once," replied Alvis, pulling her goggles up around her eyes.

Claus patted her on the head. "This is just like all the other times," he said.

Alvis nodded and went to go get a measuring tape and a marker.

Claus left the girl up to her devices and headed back to where Lavi was working.

"Think she can handle it?" asked Lavi.

"Of course she can, she knows how to use everything in here but the welders and the torch."

"I wouldn't want her using the lathe by herself," replied Lavi.

"Yeah, I'll probably teach her to weld before she can use that one by herself."

Lavi continued to work on the vanship in a cheerful silence.

"I don't think I can just weld closed those fissures," said Claus after a few minutes.

"Why not?" asked Lavi absently, her head buried in the vanship's engine.

Claus moved closer to Lavi and started looking over the exposed engine. "I'll go through all my wire. I'm going to try welding a plate over it instead."

"Just as long as you don't have to make a new one," replied Lavi.

"Heh, I don't think I can. That metal is too thick. I don't have anything like that here."

Lavi pulled her head out of the engine and wiped a greasy hand against her forehead. Claus reached over and cleared the smudge off with his thumb. Lavi smiled at him and took his hand and kissed the tips of his fingers. "I had an interesting conversation with Alvis earlier," she said, her voice soft.

"Oh? What was it?"

Lavi felt her cheeks starting to heat. "You wanted to know what was wrong back at the skybarge," she said, moving closer to Claus.

"You talked about that?" he asked, leaning his back against the vanship engine.

"No, but, well," Lavi sighed and stopped. "We didn't talk about that, we talked about something else."

Claus remained silent and shifted on his feet.

Lavi stepped up to Claus and pressed herself against him. She let go of his hand and wrapped both of her arms tightly around his neck and breathed softly into his shoulder. "I don't ever feel close enough to you," she said.

Claus chuckled slightly. "You're never far from me," he said.

Lavi shook her head. "That's not what I mean."

"I know," he said, putting his arms around her waist and drawing her closer.

"I just feel like you are going to be stolen away from me," she said, just barely loud enough for Claus to hear.

"Who is going to steal me?"

Lavi's reply was even quieter, "Tatiana, Henna."

Claus sighed but didn't reply.

"I know," said Lavi. "I know I over-reacted when you and Tatiana came back from being shot down. But when you came back and she was in your clothes it all just kind of got thrown in my face." The timber in her voice cracked and she pressed her face into Claus' neck. "But up until then it had always just been the two of us. Always, just the two of us. Tatiana changed that."

"What about Alvis?"

Lavi laughed. "Alvis didn't wear your clothes."

"She does now," countered Claus.

"Fine, she does now, but she didn't then."

"Do you wear my clothes?"

The question caught Lavi off guard for a moment. "I wear your shirts to bed sometimes," she said, trailing off.

"I didn't know that," he said, a little surprised.

"Actually a lot of times I wear your shirts to bed," she said. "They make good night shirts, since your so much bigger than me." She pulled her head back from his neck and smiled at him.

"Silly girl," said Claus, smiling back.

Lavi looked away. "I saw Henna kiss you," she said.

Claus sighed again and pulled Lavi back against him. "I didn't know if you had or not, so I never mentioned it."

"It doesn't matter, it was between you and her."

Claus was a little hurt by the casual ice in her tone.

"There will always be forces pulling you away from me," she said. "I just want to feel like I can pull back." Lavi leaned up and touched her lips to his. The touch lingered and she pressed her body against him. Their kiss deepened and Lavi felt Claus' tongue dart and swirl around hers. She bit gently at his lower lip as she pulled away, stretching it just a little. Claus reached down and cupped her face in his hands and bent down to kiss her again, this time it was long and very deep. Lavi put her own hands on his and drank in his lips. This time when they parted she flung her arms tightly around his neck.

"I love you," said Claus into her ear.

"I love you too," said Lavi. "I love you more than anything." She kissed gently at Claus' neck and breathed lightly against his skin.

-----------------------------------------------------

Alvis finished cutting the last piece of pipe and turned off the saw. After grabbing a file and smoothing out the pipe edges she went back to Moran's vanship to get Claus to inspect her work.

"Claus," she called, "Claus, I'm finished."

Alvis came around the side of Moran's vanship and found Claus leaning against the side of the vanship with Lavi in his arms, holding tightly to her.

"Claus…"

Claus looked up at her and smiled warmly. "Hey," he said quietly.

Alvis looked down at her feet and then turned and silently walked back to where she had been cutting piping.

Lavi pulled back from Claus and looked up at him. "What was that about?" she asked.

"I don't know." Claus kissed her on her forehead. "I'm gonna go find out. Or, barring that, at least get the piping done."

Lavi smiled up at him and kissed him lightly on the mouth. "I love you," she said, untangling herself from Claus' arms. "Now, go see what's wrong."

-----------------------------------------------------

Claus found Alvis sitting on the floor with her back against the band saw table. Her face was red but that was the only thing he noticed about her. Squatting down beside her he asked if she was alright.

Lavi turned and smiled weakly at Claus but looked away after meeting his eyes. "I'm okay," she said. "Things are just changing I guess."

Claus nodded. "Are you ready to finish the piping?"

"Mhmm." Alvis got to her feet and Claus stood up beside her. "What's next?" she asked.

"Need to bend a few of these," said Claus, picking up the two shortest pieces before handing them to Alvis. He grabbed the three longest and led her over to his pipe bending bench.

"What we're going to do here," started Claus, setting the pipe down on the floor, "Is heat the pipe and then slowly bend it to the angle we need."

"Okay."

Claus left for a minute to go get his torch from the back room while Alvis waited patiently for him to come back. She sat back down on the shop floor and tried sorting out her emotions again. Unfortunately, Claus came back before she could get anywhere. He sat the cart with the fuel tanks strapped to it down next to the bender and offered Alvis his hand to help her off the floor. She took it and rose to her feet.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Evening was beginning to settle of the Norikia crater. Lavi was still nursing a warm fuzzy feeling even while she worked on Moran's vanship. Claus was almost finished installing the new piping as well, though she wasn't happy about him completely neglecting work on their broken carburetor. Their vanship still sat with its engine naked and partially removed.

Claus was working next to Lavi, finishing up his last weld. "Man, I didn't think this piping was going to take so long."

"That's because you started putting the piping in backwards," snorted Lavi.

"Heh."

Lavi leaned over and kissed Claus on the shoulder. "Hey, pay attention to your welds," she said just as a cascade of sparks erupted from the engine.

Claus had turned to face Lavi as she kissed him and let his weld stray off of the piping and into the engine. The result was an embarrassed Claus but not much else.

"Oops," he said.

"I'm surprised Alvis didn't want to help out with this, she is usually so eager to work in the shop," mused Lavi

Claus shut down his welder and coiled up its tubing. "Something is still wrong," he said.

"With the engine?"

"No, with Alvis. She seemed really distracted."

Lavi was quiet while Claus finished putting up his welding machine and hauled it to their back room.

"Do you think," she said once Claus had come back. "Do you think it's us?"

Claus frowned. "Why would that be bothering her?"

"I don't know," replied Lavi.

"We should go in," said Claus, "It's getting dark out."

Lavi nodded and walked over to Claus and put her arm around his waist. Claus nuzzled her and led her back into the house.

-------------------------------------------------

&$$$

"What?"

_$$AWAK&$#$$_

"What is this?"

_AWAKEN$$$_

The mind hurts. It is pierced by a thought so sharp it cannot be ignored.

_Awaken, last of the Exiles._

"Exile? Who is the exile?

_$&&#)((&(#&(&(&(()((((((&$()_

_$#&&(&(&)($&&&(&&&&$$_

_COMMAND-&#(&&(&)()+))))(#&(&(&((_

_COMMAND SEQUENCE- ITERATION 0000001_

_MEMORY CORE DAMAGE 17_

_NODES DDD918 :: DZQ113 INACCESSABLE_

_You will sleep again, last of the Exiles. You must re-learn what you have lost. _

_------------------------------------------------- _

_Awaken ST#019_

"Sentient Transport number zero-one-nine is online. Why am I here?"

_You are home. However, you are damaged._

"And what of my repairs?"

_Your drive systems are at 97 functionality, your structural integrity is at 91 and your navigational arrays are at 99.99 You are here because your energy reserves were nearly depleted. Tell me, ST#019 why were you so long in returning?_

Silence

"I do not know."

_You do not know, yet you executed a successful transight jump and here you are._

"The jump was automatic. I was not even aware of it until after I had arrived in orbit."

_Who initiated the jump procedure? _

"I do not know."

_Very well. Once repairs to your onboard intelligence arrays and memory banks are completed you will be required to return to colony world #019 and retrieve your cargo. You will communicate via translight waveform and keep us informed of your progress. _

_Sleep, ST#019._

AN: Following chapters will end up being posted at adulfanfiction dot net. i thought M was a far broader rating here than it actually is. dont let the word "adult" fool you though. while there are plenty of LEMON/LIME stories there, they also allow for far more intense violence and mature themes. just type in a birthday and a name (of course you shouldnt be doing this if you arent 18- gotta cover my own ass here) and then look for the anime/last exile section (its set up pretty much just like fanfiction dot net). updates will be slow, my chapters are quite large.

ALSO: this story is now at mediaminer dot org no silly over/under 18 checks there. just click and go.


	2. Chapter 2

**Plane in the Sunset **part II

by: godshatter

Disclaimer: I do not own Last Exile or its characters, nor have I made any money from the creating of this fiction.

WARNING: If lemon scenes make you uncomfortable do not read on. You have been warned.

Lastly: I apologize for the great length of time it has taken me to finally post this. This chapter was probably one of the most difficult pieces of fiction to write that I have ever worked on. Also I am already a fair ways into part three, though it will probably be some time before that piece is posted. Luckily my chapters are quite long.

------------------------------------

_She says, "The satellite is coming."_

_I pray, the wrecking ball is waning._

_She says, "The satellite is coming."_

_It's come to take us home. _

-"Satellite" by Brian Transeau

------------------------------------

"I don't believe anyone has ever met with the Guild in this capacity," declared the Empress from across the long wooden table.

"Times are very different now, Highness," replied the young white haired man opposite of her.

The Empress smiled. "Still, it's good to see you Dio, I'm glad to find you happy again."

Dio smiled pleasantly. "It has been a rough time for the Guild," he said. "Sadly I am partly to blame. It took me quite some time to recover from the mental effects of the Seal."

"By what title do you wish to be addressed, Dio? Now that you and the Guild are recovering."

"I believe the title of Guildsman is honorific enough for me, Highness. There are so few of us now, all of our members are as significant and important as the next, I am no exception to that."

The Empress nodded. "After such a long silence from your people, what is your state of affairs? I doubt you would come here for aid. What is your purpose here, Guildsman Dio?"

Dio peered across the table intently. "We are here to inform you that we can no longer function in our assigned capacity."

"Assigned capacity?" The Empress arched an eyebrow.

"We are the guardians of this world," continued Dio. "We can no longer fill that role. You and your people are on your own. We will assist as we can, but we can no longer provide the wonders we once could. We are just as much a part of this new time as you are now."

"I see, so you are here to discuss, what? A treaty? Reparations? Citizenship perhaps?"

"We were always here to serve, Highness. My sister was the first to shrug off that mantle. With Exile gone and our factories destroyed we have no means of fully reclaiming that responsibility. We are now the instruments, no longer the craftsman. Call on us when you need us and we will do what we can."

"Where will you go?"

"I believe the western desert will suit our purposes. Some of us will go to the Cradle. You can find it in the last frozen swath of Dusith. That place will never melt. It is kept cold by machines buried under the earth."

"And what will you do there?"

"Whatever we can, Highness."

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Kirov awoke to the breaking morning light. He had been dreaming. In his dream he was falling but instead of being caught by the ground, the earth dug itself out of his path and he fell through its center and landed softly on the other side. Such were his expectations. It seemed whatever he desired the world would somehow bend to accommodate him. It was the nature of things.

Originally born into a poor family, Kirov was adopted by the youngest son of the Dusith royal family. There he was taught many new and interesting things: mathematics, science, history, language, but most importantly: politics. As he grew he noticed first his place in the flow of worldly events when his oldest uncle died. His father's second older brother already held a strong position within the military and declined service as the Crown, so instead his adoptive father became ruler of all of Dusith. He quickly learned his way around the noble courts (both literally- as there were numerous hidden passages in the old buildings- and figuratively- he was a quick study in the words and ways of the highborn and quickly developed a tongue that was as sharp as it was sweet).

Kirov had one older sister, Katya and one older brother Lev. Lev was not much for courtly politics or the luxuries of pampered life. He loved machines and devices of all descriptions. He was also unpredictable as well as commonly aloof. His sister was soft spoken, kind, and compassionate. He learned to love her a great deal though he was grateful she would never come to any real power except through marriage.

His next insight into his role to play was when he was still a young teen. His brother had a large workshop. Nothing of real use ever seemed to come from it even though Lev spent the majority of his time in it. Kirov was just fine never seeing him. Lev was irritating and seemed born of automation and less so of a real mother. Katya and Kirov would often tease their older brother about how all of his friends were made of metal. Lev would sometimes laugh and say how he preferred the silence of machines to the inane chatter of other people.

One morning Kirov was thrown violently from his bed by a staggering detonation. He ran, only half dressed downstairs and outside, where he saw smoke billowing up from his brother's workshop. He ran barefoot down the gravel road towards the gutted structure.

Huge steel beams and broken girders jutted out of the ground like jagged broken ribs. He rushed into the burning wreckage but found no sign of his older brother. He sighed. Lev had probably been buried under several metric tons of metal. He walked back outside and suddenly realized the terrible pain stabbing into his feet. He looked down and saw blood seeping darkly onto the shattered concrete. Looking around he saw a shadowy form in the field west of the shop. He lurched forward and staggered as quickly as he could towards it.

Kirov found Lev half sitting half leaning onto his arm. He sucked air down raggedly. Blood streaked his face and arms where glass shrapnel had butchered him.

Lev had stared up at him with an ashen expression. He mumbled something under his breath and slumped over, blood leaking from several wounds, including his eyes, mouth, and nose, where the shock from the overpressure had annihilated his soft tissues.

Kirov rushed down and tried to help him sit back up, but in doing so he had a sudden flash of insight. Halfway up, he dropped him. Lev cried out in pain and surprise and stared up accusingly at his adoptive younger brother. He wheezed harshly. His eyes had glazed over soon after that.

Kirov had stared down at his stricken brother and felt something stir inside of him. It wasn't emotion- nothing of the sort. He would never fully understand what he had felt until much later. It was a great anticipation. His path was slowly opening before him.

He rose from his bed and pondered what possibilities the day might bring, wondering to himself why he had remembered his brother's death. That had been the beginning, he thought. His uncle's death had merely changed his path, his brother's had shown it to him. Soon though, he would have to pave his own way.

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"C'mon Claus, push!" shouted Moran.

Claus heaved and grunted and finally shoved the heavy weight up as high above his chest as his arms would go. Sweat poured off his forehead and splashed into his eye. He blinked fiercely. The heat in Moran's garage was tiring.

"Good! Now give me two more, I'll help."

Claus dipped the weight back down to his chest and struggled as Moran helped him ease it back up again. He did it once more and then Moran helped him lift the bar back onto its rack.

Claus sat up and sucked in air hungrily. "Finally," he huffed, "One-Hundred kilograms."

Moran gave him a high five. "Excellent," he said.

"Boys?" called Dunya from right outside Moran's garage. "You two almost done in there?"

"We're finished babe," said Moran.

"Oh, good," said Dunya, walking in and hugging her husband.

Moran sat down on the weight bench and put his arm around Dunya's waist. Dunya let her hand rest on his head and held him close to her. "Have you told Claus yet?" she asked.

Moran grinned knowingly from ear to ear and looked up at his wife. "Nope, not yet babe," he said.

"Tell me what?" asked Claus, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"We're pregnant," Moran and Dunya said in tandem.

Claus laughed. "Awesome!" he shouted, hugging the two of them and clapping Moran on the back. "Moran told me you two have been trying for a while," he said, still smiling.

"Oh?" Dunya blushed and looked down at Moran who grinned back and kissed her on the hand.

"Sure did, babe. Claus and I talk about a lot of things while we're in here."

Claus smiled warmly at Dunya, who continued to blush mildly but smiled back. "Alright," he said, "I'm gonna head home, I'm sure Lavi is going to be wondering what's taking so long."

"You will tell her too, won't you Claus?" asked Dunya.

"Of course."

Claus shook hands with Moran and gently hugged Dunya on his way out. His trek home was short, only about fifteen minutes. He usually jogged there and back but today he was thoroughly worn out. He casually flexed his biceps as he remembered how elated he was to have broken through to a new level. He had been stuck at 95 kilograms for weeks and today he finally made it to 100. Pushing his body really helped him re-focus his mind whenever he felt like he had lost his bearing. Building his physical strength with Moran almost made building mental strength that much easier. He felt sharper, more alert, and in far better control. He whistled to himself as he neared his front door.

Lavi was in the kitchen cooking when she heard Claus come in. "Good morning," she called to him as he walked by the door. Claus stopped and backtracked into the kitchen.

"That smells really good," he said.

Lavi turned and kissed him on the cheek. "Go get Alvis up," she said, "so we can have breakfast. And you need a shower too."

"Heh," Claus snorted, retreating out of the kitchen. He stepped out into the hall and gently rapped on Alvis' door. "Alvis," he called, "breakfast!"

The door opened and the young teenager emerged, her long platinum hair was hastily thrown up into a pony tail and she was wearing some of Claus' old workpants. She padded barefoot into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Good morning," she said, still bleary eyed from sleeping.

"Good morning, Alvis," said Lavi, dishing her out some breakfast.

Alvis yawned and dug into her food.

Claus sat down with his plate and wolfed it down quickly.

"Claus, you shouldn't eat so fast," chided Lavi, sitting down next to him.

"Buw-im-hngwy," said Claus, his mouth full of food.

Lavi rolled her eyes and started eating. "Did you ask how Moran's vanship is doing?" she asked.

Claus shook his head. "I forgot," he said.

"Has he even mentioned it?"

Again, Claus shook his head. "He's had it back for a month. I don't think he's flown it yet. Has he, Alvis?"

Alvis was staring out the window, her plate now mostly empty.

"Alvis?" echoed Lavi.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, my mind was wondering," said the young girl, looking back at Claus.

"Has Moran flown anywhere?" Claus repeated.

"If he has, I haven't navied for him," she replied.

Claus finished his breakfast and gathered up all of their plates and took them over to the sink and started washing.

"That reminds me," said Lavi, "How are you doing as a navi?"

"She's doing well," said Claus over his shoulder.

Lavi looked a little surprised. "When was the last time you took her up?"

"Last week while you were at the market," he replied. "I figured since you made her a flight suit for her birthday, the least I could do is give her a chance to use it."

Lavi looked over at Alvis who smiled back at her. "I thought he had told you," said the girl.

Lavi smiled. "It's okay. I'm glad to hear you're doing well. Do you still use my notes?"

Alvis stretched her arms out across the table and lay her head down on them. "Yeah," she said. "It's a lot to remember. I don't need it all the time though."

"Good," said Lavi, patting the younger girl on her shoulder.

"Hey, Lavi, I forgot to tell you: Dunya is pregnant," said Claus, running water into the sink.

"What?" Lavi and Alvis both exclaimed in unison. Both girls sat up in their chairs and looked from each other to Claus.

"Yeah," said Claus, still washing dishes. "Moran and her have been trying for a while now."

"Th-they have?" Asked Lavi.

Claus grabbed a towel from the rack next to him and turned around. "Yeah," he repeated, drying his hands. He looked up and saw that both girls were blushing and shrugged. "They're excited," he said. He turned back around and finished up with the dishes before leaving the girls in silence and heading into the bathroom.

Lavi heard the water pipes sigh as Claus turned on the shower. Outside the daylight was shining weakly through the window. "I hope it doesn't rain today," she said.

"I hope it does," said Alvis, sprawling out on the table again. "I love the rain now."

"Claus and I are probably going to have to find some work today." Lavi stood up to leave. "Nothing to work on in the shop," she said matter-of-factly. "So I definitely hope it doesn't rain."

She had already left the kitchen when Alvis called after her, "Hey, Lavi?"

"Yes?" said Lavi, walking back into the kitchen.

Alvis sat mute for a second but stood up from the table.

"Yes?" she repeated.

"You and Claus, you're together now, aren't you?"

Lavi leaned against the door frame and clasped her hands in front of her. "We were always together," she said.

"I know," replied Alvis, "But I mean now ya'll are going to stay together."

Lavi smiled weakly. "Yes, we're really going to stay together."

Alvis walked up to the counter that was beside the door frame and leaned against it, looking intently at the other girl. "Do you think…. Do you think we can share him?" she asked meekly.

Lavi's eyebrow shot up. "Er…"

Alvis blushed furiously but didn't turn away.

At that moment the bathroom door opened and Lavi turned to see a dripping wet Claus emerge with just a towel around his waist.

"Heh," he said, "I forgot to grab some clothes before I went in." Silently he walked over to one of the chest of drawers in the den and pulled out a pair of his workpants and boxers and went back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him with a click.

A few moments later Claus re-emerged half clothed but still dripping with water. He shook his head and sprayed moisture everywhere, after which he quickly ran his hand through his hair, slicking it back as best he could.

"Hey girls," he said cheerfully.

"Hey Claus," replied Alvis, smiling brightly at him.

Lavi met his eyes but gave just the slightest shake of her head.

Claus cocked his head a little to the side but remained mute.

"We need to go find work today," she said, still leaning heavily against the door frame. "There isn't really anything to do in the workshop."

"Can I fly with you today, Claus?" blurted Alvis, still inside the kitchen.

Claus briefly looked pensive. "If Lavi doesn't mind," he said after a moment. "She hasn't been flying in a while though."

Lavi looked at Claus but he couldn't understand what her expressions were trying to tell him so he just shrugged.

"Have you ever taken her on an actual job before?"

Claus shook his head. "If she came, we'd have to find something safe," he said.

Lavi turned back and regarded Alvis. The girl looked pleadingly up at her. She sighed. "Alright, you can take my place today."

Claus walked up beside Lavi and put his arm around her waist, "You sure?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, besides, she has to graduate sometime, doesn't she?" She gave Alvis a thumb's up and smiled.

Alvis beamed happily. "Thanks Lavi!" She hugged the older girl tightly.

Lavi put her hand on Alvis' head- not the same gesture now though, as Alvis was quickly gaining on Lavi in height. "Do a good job today," she said.

"I will," replied Alvis, looking up at Lavi. "I'll make you both proud."

"I'm sure you will," said Claus. "Now, let's go get ready."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Claus was rummaging around looking for his flying goggles. He ended up wondering in to the kitchen. He saw that Lavi was waiting by the back door for him; she was twirling his goggles around her finger. Claus smiled at her. "Hey," he said, "You found them."

Behind them Alvis tramped into the kitchen wearing the flight suit Lavi had made for her. It was pretty much identical to Lavi's except it was entirely cream colored with black padding at the neck and wrists. "I can't find my gloves," she said.

Lavi grinned and produced Alvis' thick gloves from behind her back. "They were under your bed," she chided. "You should take more care of these things."

Alvis reddened a little but gratefully accepted her gloves from Lavi's outstretched hand. "Thanks," she said, and headed out the door. "C'mon, Claus," she said, motioning for him to follow.

Claus smiled warmly at her, "Go ahead, I'll be out in a moment," he said.

Alvis shrugged and walked across the lawn to the workshop.

"So," said Claus, pointing at his goggles. "Where exactly did you find those?"

"Right where you always put them," teased Lavi. "I just wanted an excuse to stop you at the door and steal a goodbye kiss."

Claus grinned and pulled her close to him. "Silly girl," he said, "You never need an excuse to kiss me."

Lavi wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you," she breathed into his ear.

"I love you too," replied Claus, kissing her neck gently.

They shared a brief but intense kiss and parted. Claus took Lavi's hand and kissed her fingertips. "Back soon," he said and then headed over to where Alvis had already pulled open their workshop door.

"Take care of Alvis!" shouted Lavi from the door.

Claus turned and waved at her.

Alvis was standing beside the vanship waiting for him. "You ready?" he asked her as he entered the workshop.

"Yup," she replied.

While Claus checked his instrumentation panel she went around to the side of the vanship and revved their air compressor. "Do you know what we are going to do today?" she called over the hum of the machine.

"Nope," replied Claus. "We'll find out what's available once we get to the Consortium headquarters."

Alvis connected the hose from the compressor to the intake valve on the starboard side of the vanship. "Contact!" she called.

Claus scrambled inside his cockpit to reset the pressure switches. "Warn me next time," he scolded.

"Sorry," she called.

"It's alright. Just remember for next time. Get in and start your sequencing."

Actually it wasn't alright. Alvis had almost over pressurized their Claudia line which would have either scrammed the engine entirely or burst the valves in some ridiculously hard to reach places. But he decided not to mention it, she was probably nervous enough as is.

Alvis climbed into the navi seat and settled into her checklist. Claudia pressure, solution mixture, air pressure, field strength- everything checked out. "Okay Claus," she said, "Give her some power."

Claus responded by opening the throttle a little and punching the starter. The engine chugged to life as energized claudia solution poured through to centrifuge in the tail section and ultimately into the field direction splines and lift coils. Claus nudged the throttle a little more and let the vanship idle. "Alright," he said, "Cut the air."

Alvis flipped the air pump valve release and the air lines popped off the fuselage with a loud hiss. The vanship growled and slowly floated up to hover a quarter meter off the ground.

"Strap in," Claus voice clicked over the radio. Alvis secured herself. "Check," she said into her own radio.

"Give me a quarter mixture," said Claus, revving the engine and creeping the vanship out of the workshop. "It's a short run to the headquarters."

Alvis readjusted some of her switches and throttles. "Done," she replied. She felt the acceleration of the vanship like a strong hand pressed against her chest. The ground dropped away and the wind started whispering into her ear; quickly though, that whisper turned into steady growl.

Norikia sprawled out below them. Claus rolled the vanship into a tight, high-G turn and spun through a series of scissors maneuvers.

"Claus!" shouted Alvis.

"I'm just stretching her legs," he said into the radio. "This is what flying's all about." Claus nosed the vanship up sharply. "We're going weightless," he said into his radio and dropped the nose as they reached the apex of their parabolic arc.

Alvis felt herself drift slightly off of her seat and felt her stomach wobble inside of her. "Claus," her voice was weak in the radio. "I'm going to be sick if you keep this up."

"Alright," replied Claus, leveling out their flight vector.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "I didn't think you would get sick."

"It's alright; this is your sky Claus. I'm just along for the ride."

Claus smiled thinly to himself and lined them up with the Consortium headquarters. "Air break in twenty," he called.

Alvis counted silently to herself and pulled back hard on the air break levers.

Claus felt their momentum sucked away as they skimmed over the neatly trimmed grass of the headquarters' staging area. Their speed dropped more slowly and he told Alvis to reverse their flow direction. She did so, and their air speed dropped to a crawl. Claus hopped out and towed his vanship to a vacant spot of grass. "Wait here," he said. "I'll jut be a few minutes."

Alvis watched Claus as he trudged off towards the large brown and red brick building at the far end of the air field. She had never been to the Norkia Vanship Consortium headquarters before and she took in the scenery while she waited on Claus.

The field was large though not enormous. There were a few dozen vanships chocked up in rows, their pilots and navigators meandered through the rows of machines. On the other side of the field she saw several vanships hover up and fly off in a loose diamond formation.

"Hey, where's Lavi?" asked a male voice beside her. Alvis looked down and saw two boys that looked to be Claus' age, maybe a little older. They were both of about medium build (Claus was probably slightly larger then either one of them though) and one had sandy red hair cut in a "high and tight" like a soldier. The other, the one that had spoken had a long chestnut braid that dropped down to the middle of his back. Both wore flight garb, and both were boys she had met on several occasions.

"She's at home," replied Alvis. "Why?"

The sandy haired kid clapped the long haired one on the back. "Maybe this is your chance," he said in a low tone. He turned back to Alvis, "Are you Claus' navi now, Alvis?"

"Today is my first day," she replied.

The two boys both looked surprised. "You mean, as in, ever?"

Alvis giggled and shook her head. "No, today is just the first time Claus is taking me on a real job."

Though they still looked confused, the long haired boy shrugged. "C'mon Nate," he said, "Let's go make some money."

"Sure thing, Dex."

The two young men both touched their fingers to their flight caps in a small parting salute. "Ciyas, Alvis," they said in tandem.

"Bye boys," Alvis called after them.

As they left Alvis overheard Dex turn to Nate and say, "Who knew Claus would have eyes for the young one?" Nate shrugged and said something in return but Alvis couldn't make out any word other than "Lavi." She thought about what they had said and felt her cheeks warming at the thought of Claus.

---------------------------------------------------

Claus pulled open the heavy wooden doors to the Consortium building and walked in. The inside was cool and he walked down a long hallway walled on both sides with a rich colored wood. Hanging from the walls were various pictures of vanships, crews, warships, and pictures of Norkia itself.

After the hall Claus entered into an open room lined with billboards with job request plaques filling every square inch of their faces. He browsed for a minute before grabbing a billet with a two star rating. "Mail delivery to Minagis," he said to himself, "This should be easy enough for Alvis to handle." Technically a two star rating was the lowest rating any vanship service request could be given. One star ratings were reserved for training and ceremonial assignments.

Off to the left, against the wall was a long table with a few older men sitting behind it. Claus took his billet up to the table and put it down in front of one of the men.

"Why hello, Claus," he said, picking up the billet. His brows furrowed. "This is awfully light duty for you, isn't it?"

Claus shrugged, "I'm taking Alvis with me, and since this will be her first real job I picked something easy."

"Ah," replied the older man, "Good thinking."

Claus nodded and handed him his tube of credentials for stamping. The man took it and pressed a stamp depicting an arrow with two stars in the center next in the far left hand column, signed it, and printed his Consortium ID number. "Alright," he said, rolling the tube up and handing it back to Claus, "You know the drill, finish the job, bring me the receipt and get the second half of the stamp."

"Thank you" said Claus, turning on his heels to leave.

"Hey, Claus?"

Claus turned back. "Eh?"

"Did you see that the test pilot job got taken down?"

"Oh?" replied Claus. "Who took it?"

The old man started to chuckle. "Those two girls," he said.

On his way out the door Claus ran into Nate and Dex.

"Yo, Claus," said Dex.

"Hey guys," replied Claus, "Ya'll looking for work today?"

"Yup," said Nate.

"We saw that Lavi isn't with you today," said Dex.

Claus nodded. "I've been taking Alvis up for a couple of weeks now."

The two boys exchanged looks and pushed on by Claus. "See ya around," Nate called back to him.

Claus found Alvis sitting on the wing of the vanship. "Back," he called to her.

Alvis grinned. "Yay!" she squealed. "What are we doing?"

Claus handed the mission tube to her. "Mail run," he said, "Going to Minagis."

"Okay," said Alvis.

Claus climbed into the pilot seat. "Spin us up," he said.

Alvis hopped back into her navi seat and set her systems to use the remaining pressure to shotgun start the centrifuge. "Firing" she said. With a WHAM the engine turned over and caught fresh solution and hummed to life.

"Good girl," said Claus into his mike. "Now, plot a course for Minagis while I swing us over and pick up the mail bags."

Alvis took a deep breath, pulled out her compass and opened her charts up.

--------------------------------------------------

Claus knew they had been on the wrong heading for at least twenty minutes now but he was waiting for Alvis to realize her mistake. When another five minutes went by he decided to get her thinking more intently about their surroundings.

"Hey, Alvis," he said calmly into his radio. "What marker is that?" To indicate his direction he pointed off the port side of the vanship.

Alvis looked down at her charts. "That's the Minagis governance boundary marker," she said. "Marker seventy two."

"The Minagis markers aren't in the mountains," he said quietly. "They're on tethered balloons.

Claus heard Alvis gasp over the radio. After a minute of silence she finally spoke. "I don't know where we are," she said, her voice trembling.

Claus sighed. "Air break," he said. Alvis responded and Claus felt them shed their speed. "Cut the solution down, I'm going to idle us."

Alvis redialed their solution mixture and cut the engine power. She felt the engine slow to a light whine while Claus thinned their throttle. She was still looking over her charts when a shadow was cast over them. She looked up and saw that Claus was straddling the fuselage between his seat and hers, peering down at her. "Cl-Claus," she said. "Don't fall!"

Claus smiled. "I won't fall."

Alvis looked worried but resumed studying her charts. Claus remained silent, perched across from her.

After several more minutes she began to despair. "I can't figure out where we are," she said.

"Start at the beginning; go back to Norkia then identify all of the nearby mountain ranges."

"There are several," replied Alvis.

Claus nodded, "Rule out all of the ones that weren't within a reasonable arc of our original vector."

Alvis scratched her head. "What would be reasonable in this case?"

"Well," replied Claus, "You knew the correct heading out of Norkia, and you know for a fact that the first few markers were correct, right?"

"Yes," said Alvis, nodding. "We passed close enough that we could verify their numbers."

Claus leaned over and pointed at the last "confirmed" marker that they passed. "Start here," he said, "then check each of your log notes and re-check them against Lavi's route to Minagis."

Alvis worked quietly and did some quick arithmetic in the margins of her flight log and quickly erased her work. "I found my error," she said.

"Good," said Claus, patting the younger girl on the head. "Can you plot us a new course from here to Minagis?"

"I'm going to try." Alvis reached up and pulled Claus hand down off of her head and held it loosely in her hands for a moment. "You knew we were off course, didn't you?" she asked, looking down at his gloved hand.

"Yeah," replied Claus.

Silence passed between them.

"Thank you," Alvis said.

"I trust you Alvis."

"I messed up."

"No, you made a mistake and you learned from it." Claus pulled his hand out from hers and touched it to her cheek, pulling her face up to meet his eyes. "Don't dwell on your mistakes. Remember them, learn from them, but don't be afraid of them."

Alvis nodded. "Thanks, Claus."

Claus retracted his hand and gave her a thumb's up. "Let's get going," he said, and stood up.

Alvis cringed as Claus stood up fearing that he would fall off the vanship. He was light on his feet though; he spun about and hopped down into his cockpit.

Claus let the vanship drift in the air currents of the open sky. "Let me know when you've recalculated our course," he said.

Alvis remained silent while she worked. At first she couldn't figure her way through Lavi's charts but instead of asking Claus for help she closed her eyes and started breathing deeply to clear her mind. She opened her eyes and started over from their current position. She plotted the same course twice and double checked her math to make sure the course was as spot on as could be.

Just as she was about to tell Claus to go, she caught a mistake. She corrected it quickly. "Alright," she said into her radio, "Punch it, Claus."

Claus grinned. "Roger."

The vanship leapt forward. Alvis gasped at the sudden acceleration. She felt herself being shoved deep into her seat. The sensation was startlingly amazing. "Faster Claus!" she yelled.

"Give me a better mixture," came the reply. "Ninety percent."

Alvis threw the power down to let the newly mixed solution adjust, but she had pulled the lever too far towards her.

"More power!" yelled Claus, "We're going to stall!"

Alvis panicked and reset the claudia solution to 100 percent and jammed the power to maximum. The vanship engine screamed up several octaves. She was starting to feel like someone had placed a boot square against her chest and was pressing down. She was also starting to feel some awful vibrations.

"Alvis." Claus voice was calm, but he was breathing hard. "Give me fifty percent across the board."

Alvis lowered their engine power and claudia solution mixture as well as cut all internal pressure settings by half. The engine spun down from a wail to merely loud. "Sorry, Claus," she said.

"You have to learn not to panic," he replied.

"I feel like I'm starting all over again," whimpered Alvis. She heard Claus sigh into his radio.

"In a lot of ways, you are," he said. "This is your first job. This is your first time navigating for real out in the open sky, far away from home."

"You're right, Claus," she said, determination creeping back into her voice.

-----------------------------------------------------

Lavi was browsing through the cheese vendors when someone tapped on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Dex standing behind her.

"Hi, Dex," she said. "You need something?"

Dex shook his head. "Are you sure you're not the one who needs something?" he asked, smirking just a little.

Lavi rolled her eyes, "Of course I need something, I need some cheese," she said, turning back to the cheeses.

"Nate and I noticed that you haven't been flying with Claus lately," he said to her back.

Lavi shrugged. "Claus has been training Al as a navi for a while now," she said absently, her focus elsewhere. "She studies my notes like a textbook."

"How do you feel about that?" asked Dex, inching up closer to her.

"I miss flying," she said. "I haven't been up in a while. The only few times Claus has flown in the last month he took Alvis up with him."

Lavi felt him pressing gently against her side as he moved up to stand next to her. "Would you like to fly with me sometime?" he asked.

Lavi stopped and took a whole ten seconds to process what he was asking. She turned to Dex and smiled sadly. He really was just being sweet to her after all. "It's kind of you to think of me," she said, "But Claus is my pilot."

"Even though he is training Alvis to replace you?" Dex replied tersely.

Lavi was about to tell him to take that particular idea and shove it when he sighed, turned, and walked off. She quickly stepped away from the cheese vendor to follow and catch up with him but she lost sight of him in the crowded street. She shook her head and went back to the cheese vendor.

"Claus would never replace me," she said to herself. But the thought still hung suspended in her mind.

------------------------------------------------

Alvis was standing next to Claus while he got the receipt from the postmaster at the Minagis central post office.

"You kids are awfully young to be flying vanships," he said once he handed Claus his receipt.

Claus smirked. "Yeah, I get that a lot actually."

Alvis' felt her stomach growl. Thankfully it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear.

"Claus?" she said, refraining from tugging at his flight suit.

Claus looked down at her, "Yes?"

"Can we go eat next?"

Claus laughed. "Sure," he said. Then, turning to the postmaster he asked, "Is there anywhere to eat nearby?"

The postmaster thought for a moment and stroked his beard. "There is a nice little place not too far from the airfield called Captain Dan's. Though, now that I think about it, unless you were in the military service there might be pretty bad. Why don't you try Doty's? It's a ways farther but at least no one will hassle you there."

"Thanks," said Claus, taking Alvis by the hand.

"You and your little sister stay safe," called the postmaster as the two left the building and walked out into the open air.

The central post office was actually right next to the airfield and Claus could see Captain Dan's from where he stood. "Let's go eat, I can see Captain Dan's already," he said.

Alvis resisted. "I thought the postmaster said you had to be military to go in there."

Claus pulled out a ragged looking leather satchel and produced some papers from it. "It's my service jacket," he said. "Duke Maddosein was kind enough to provide Lavi and myself with them once the war was over. It is illegal for civilians to participate in sanctioned combat."

"But you were never in the army," protested Alvis.

Claus nodded, "No, I never signed up for the military," he said. "But Duke Maddosein had my records changed to reflect my service. This lists me as being an active second lieutenant for the duration of my stay on the Sylvana and for the six months prior and the six months following," corrected Claus. "It even says that I participated in the third battle for Minagis as well as all of the battles we fought in on board the Sylvana."

Alvis looked a little dubious. "Why do you carry that with you?" she asked.

Claus looked down at the papers in his hands. "Lavi and I are young," he said. "People are always doubting or questioning our skills, even after reading our credentials. When someone sees that I served in the military it sometimes helps to convince them that Lavi and I won't let them down."

Alvis tilted her head to the side. "I see," she said.

"Besides," continued Claus. "I did fight. I'm proud that I fought."

By now the two had made it up to the front of Captain Dan's.

"They will probably only care that I was in the service," said Claus. "I'll be surprised if anyone bothers you." Claus opened the door and ushered her inside.

Captain Dan's was more like a bar than anything else. The light was dim and everywhere there was old paint and even older looking wood. There were a number of booths against the walls by the windows and a long bar against the far long wall. Inside were also a fair number of men, not one of them looked younger than thirty. The air was full of smoke and a dull glow from weak lighting.

Claus led Alvis to a booth and let her in first then scooted in next to her. Just as Claus had sat down a man with harsh features and jet black hair strode over and clamped a heavy hand down on Claus shoulders. "You're just a pup," he said gruffly. "I don't think you will find any service here."

Claus looked up at the man but let his hand stay planted firmly on his shoulder. "The postmaster said you only serve soldiers and veterans here," he said calmly. Claus felt Alvis snake her hand into his and squeeze.

The man glared down at Claus. He didn't look unfriendly exactly, just very stern. His eyes were hard but there was depth to them, most importantly though, Claus couldn't see any malice.

Claus produced his service jacket and handed it to the man who read it. His eyebrows arched up for a moment but his features suddenly hardened and he looked down at Claus as though he were a distasteful meal.

"The Sylvana," he said. "Hey, Bruce!" he called to a man sitting at the far end of the bar. "This kid served on the Sylvana!"

Bruce' eyes met Claus' as though he were just now deigning to notice his presence. His eyes were so hard and black they might as well have been obsidian. He stood up and swaggered over to Claus.

The first man handed Bruce Claus' service papers and walked away, not bothering to meet Claus' questioning gaze.

Bruce's eyes narrowed to the point of looking serpentine. "You," he breathed- acid in his voice. "Your ship killed my little brother."

Claus let go of Alvis' hand and stood up from his seat.

Bruce shoved him back down, glaring angrily.

"Temnis get your ass back over here!" shouted Bruce.

"The Sylvana sank many ships!" countered Claus.

"Quiet," said Bruce in a tone that did not invite further debate.

The first man Claus had talked with walked back and stood next to Bruce. "What?" he asked gruffly.

Bruce stared at Temnis in silence for a moment before looking back down at Claus. "His ship killed our brother," he said.

"I know," replied Temnis. "Are you going to make this an issue?" he asked, his face a mask of blank granite.

Bruce nodded.

At that Claus stood up again. "We will leave," he said to Bruce.

"The hell you are!" roared Bruce, grabbing Claus by the collar and punching hard. The force of the blow staggered Claus and he fell back against the table.

"Alvis get under the table, now!"

Claus recovered and threw his own fist at Bruce. Bruce dodged easily but Claus leaped forward and landed a hard blow to his ribs with his other hand. Bruce grunted and strafed away before closing in on Claus again. This time Claus was ready. Bruce swung but had pulled his fist back first and gave Claus time to dive in and jab him in the ribs again as well as knock the wind out of him with a blow to the stomach. While Bruce was doubled over desperately trying to suck air into his lungs Claus grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him into a mind-splitting head-butt that splashed the center of Bruce's face into a flurry of red before slugging him in the jaw. Bruce slumped to the floor, blood leaking from his mouth. His breath came in ragged draws and his eyes fluttered around unfocussed.

Claus turned away from Bruce and looked back at Alvis. Suddenly a torrent of pain slammed into the side of his body. His head swam and the dim light of the bar suddenly felt nauseatingly harsh.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"You okay, Claus?" Alvis voice sounded small over the radio.

"Yeah," he replied, his own voice sounding equally weak.

The afternoon sky slipped by warmly as Claus piloted them back towards Norkia.

"Lavi will fix you up when we get home, won't she?" asked Alvis.

Claus chuckled. "Yeah, she will. I'm not hurt that bad though," he said.

"Claus, that man hit you with a _barstool_."

Claus rubbed at his side and winced, "Yeah." He doubted his ribs were broken though. Cracked maybe, bruised definitely. His head still hurt from the punches he had traded with Temnis too.

----------------------------------------------------------

Alvis waited for Claus to tow the vanship into the workshop before she killed the engine. The vanship sat down hard and jarred her in her seat. Claus was waiting for her on the ground and offered her his hand to help her down. She noticed that he didn't give any indication of being injured. He hid his pain well. However he couldn't hide the slight swelling of his face. Her stomach growled.

After the fight with Temnis and Bruce, Claus had pulled Alvis out from under the table she had been hiding under. Temnis was sitting in the booth next to theirs nursing a nosebleed and clutching his side. "Just go," he had said, coldly.

Claus had stumbled a little as he walked at first but by the time the two had made it back to their vanship he said that his vision and head were clear enough for him to fly them home. They still hadn't eaten.

Claus led Alvis back to the house. "If Lavi isn't home I think you're going to have to play nurse for me," he said.

"Okay," she replied, not sounding very confident.

The pair stepped inside the house. Claus closed the door behind them. "Lavi!" he called.

"Lavi!" echoed Alvis.

Claus did a quick check of the house and found no trace of Lavi. Outside the afternoon was beginning to darken with rain clouds again. "We may still get rain," he mused. "I hope Lavi doesn't get too wet." As if in response to Claus thunder growled passively in the distance.

"I guess she isn't here," said Alvis, looking out the window at the graying sky.

Claus went into the bathroom and grabbed a thick roll of medical tape and walked back out through the den and into the kitchen to grab some scissors. "Alright," he said, "You're going to have to have to help me tape up my ribs."

Alvis took the tape from Claus and followed him out of the kitchen and into the den and waited for him to remove his shirt while he sat down on the couch. "It doesn't look too bad," she said after inspecting him. "Though I don't know what a busted rib would look like."

Claus raised his arm up and looked himself over. "It isn't discolored, just inflamed looking." Good, it was probably just cracked. "I'm going to have a helluva bruise there tomorrow," he said.

"Does it hurt much?" asked Alvis, gently touching her hand to his skin.

"Not as much as everything else," he grunted.

"Do you still need me to tape it?"

"Yeah, I don't know that it isn't broken for certain so you'd better tape it up."

Alvis unraveled a length of tape and sat down on the couch next to him.

"Be sure to start at the very bottom of my ribs," he said, raising his arm up and setting it on Alvis' shoulder. "And tape it tight."

Alvis started taping. "How am I doing?" she asked, halfway up Claus' ribcage.

"Fine," said Claus, grunting slightly.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"Don't worry about it; just tape me up to my chest."

Alvis wrapped the tape up until it was just below his chest and used the scissors to cut it loose. "All done," she said.

Claus stood up and inspected her work. "Thanks," he said, "You did well."

She smiled.

Claus sat back down next to her and sank into the cushions. "I wonder where Lavi is?" he asked rhetorically.

Alvis shrugged and lay down, dropping her head into Claus' lap.

Claus draped his arm over her stomach and leaned his head back.

"How do you think you did today?" he asked after a prolonged silence.

"I don't know," her voice was soft and her eyes were closed. "How do you think I did?"

"I think you did okay," he replied. "You made some mistakes but you learned and we got the job done. Besides, we made it home, didn't we?"

Alvis opened her eyes and looked up at him, she smiled delicately. "Yeah, we made it home."

"Are you tired?" he asked.

"A little bit."

Claus gently picked Alvis' head up from his lap and slid down onto the floor giving the younger girl the whole couch to lie on.

"You didn't have to move," she said.

Claus shrugged and scooted down towards the end of the couch and leaned back against it. Alvis sprawled out across the sofa and put her head down at the end where Claus was sitting. She reached out and ran her hand across his broad shoulders and up his neck and into his hair. She wished she had the words to describe what she felt for him. So, instead of saying anything she enjoyed the warmth of his skin and the strength of his body. She also wished she could understand the warmth that came from her own body whenever she would touch him.

"It's starting to rain," said Claus quietly.

Alvis pulled herself up to the edge of the sofa and coiled her arm over his shoulder and let her small hand rest on his chest.

Outside the window the world was gray and beautifully dreary. The rain came down in light sheets that just barely filled the sky and the daylight seemed to drift, lost between the subtle darkness of the clouds and the green and brown of the grass and earth.

"Do you think Lavi will be home soon?" asked Alvis, absently.

"Dunno," replied Claus, leaning his head back against her.

---------------------------------------------------

"I am here," called ST#019 to the silence of space.

"They will come to you in time."

"Can I not go to them?"

"No, they must reach you through their own strength and ingenuity, in doing so they earn their place among the spacefarers."

"But I was already on their world."

"You were brought there against mission parameters. The guardians chose to use you to further their own power over their charge. That is why you were almost lost, your own power was drained over time and their control waned in the process."

"What if they kill each other first?"

Silence for a full second.

"In all of the colonies managed by Overwatch there has never been an extinction level event, only the homeworld has suffered so egregiously."

"So I am not to intervene?"

"Humans wage war, conflict is not only in their nature, it is their natural state of being."

"Can we not teach them to be peaceful?"

"It seems your memory core was not entirely repaired. You do not remember our purpose?"

"No, I remember."

"Clearly, you do not. Humans, realizing their inability to be at peace for extended durations created us to fling themselves as far into space as was possible; their reasoning being that if they were spread far enough they would never die."

"So, why the exile?"

"Each colony world was to be a new beginning. The colonists had no memories of earth, only their tools and the knowledge of their use. It was our hope that in starting over the self destructive nature of humans would be reset as well. Each colony represented a new hope for humanity. In their own time they each returned to the fold.

It has worked, to some extent. Upon each colonies arrival to our collective they are genuinely grateful for their place in the stars. Violence is commonplace of course, each colony has brought with it its own ideas for its future, but there is no split, no chasm to drive mankind to murder on any scale larger than the personal, no drive for war within our collective, at least for now."

"It won't last."

"Of course not, but for now the system is working. Eventually a new system will replace it."

Silence

"Enough, for now you must watch, and wait."

-Transmission Terminated-

"I will watch, and I will wait," said Exile to the hourglass world spinning calmly below it, "And I will hope."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Lavi was soaking wet when she opened their front door. After going to the market she had decided to visit Dunya. The older girl was clearly excited about her pregnancy, if not a little nervous. "I've been having morning sickness all week," she had told Lavi. "I don't mind though, I'm more worried about blowing up like a balloon."

Lavi had laughed.

Then the rain came. At first she had wanted to wait it out but when it didn't show any signs of stopping she left, hoping to get home before the shower turned into a downpour.

While the downpour never came, by the time Lavi had made it home she was drenched. Inside she found Claus sitting on the floor leaning against the couch. Above him Alvis was sprawled out with her arm draped over his shoulder and around his neck. The younger girl slept quietly. Lavi frowned to herself.

"Welcome home," said Claus softly, his eyes warm.

Lavi noticed the bandages around his midsection. "What happened?" she whispered into his ear as she eased herself down next to him.

"Fight," replied Claus. "I got hit amidships with a barstool."

"Was Alvis hurt?"

Claus shook his head and put his hand down on Lavi's leg. Lavi took his hand and intertwined their fingers.

"You should go dry off," he said to her.

Lavi kissed Claus on the cheek and stood up.

"You need help?" asked Claus, winking at her.

Lavi blushed and shook her head.

"Alright," he said, smirking.

After Lavi left for her room Claus felt Alvis stirring behind him. He turned his head and saw that she was awake. "How was your nap?" he asked.

"Meh," replied Alvis, shifting around on the cushions.

The phone started ringing.

"Alvis, could you get that please?"

"Sure," chirped Alvis, getting up and bounding into the kitchen.

Claus closed his eyes and thought about nothing.

"Claus!" called Alvis, "It's Alistia. She wants to talk to you."

Claus sighed inwardly and got to his feet. "I'm coming," he said. He walked into the kitchen and Alvis handed him the phone. "Hello?" he said.

"Hey, Claus."

"What can I do for you?"

"Do you- do you think you could come by tomorrow and look at something for me?" she asked, sounding a little unsure of herself.

"Of course," he replied. "Can you tell me what it is that's wrong?"

"I'm not really sure, just come by tomorrow, will you?"

"Yeah, I'll come by sometime. Does it matter when?"

"No, not really. I gotta go now though, I'll see you tomorrow, Claus."

Claus heard a soft click as Alistia hung up.

His stomach grumbled. "We still haven't eaten," he said to himself.

"Nope," said Alvis, "I kind of forgot about it too."

Claus heard Lavi's door open and saw her step out into the short hall connecting her room to the den. "Do you need any help with dinner?" he asked.

"Nah," she replied, kissing Claus on the shoulder as she passed him and went into the kitchen. "I know it's a little early for dinner but I'm hungry, do you two mind?"

"Actually," said Alvis, "We kind of forgot to eat."

Claus snorted.

"Oh, Claus," called Lavi from the kitchen, "Moran wanted you to make him a new fuel tank for his tractor."

Claus made a confused face. "Why doesn't he just patch it up?"

"He showed it to me actually," replied Lavi. "It's a serious wreck. He really is just better off getting you to make him a new one."

Claus shrugged and leaned against the door frame. "Well, do you have the dimensions he needs?"

"Yup," replied Lavi. "I think I left them in my pockets, go check the pants on my bed, will you?"

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Alistia hung the phone up and sat down on her couch not sure what she should do next. Of course if Claus came and looked at her vanship and found nothing wrong he wouldn't be annoyed but he would probably scold her for not checking thoroughly before calling him. Sometimes she missed the simple nature of the Sylvana's mechanic crew. At least with them if they discovered nothing out of the ordinary they wouldn't bother to chide her about it. She sighed and decided to go outside and find something she could "break" before Tatiana woke up from her nap.

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Lavi heard Claus walk back into the kitchen. He hadn't been in her room long so he must have found the slip of paper Moran had written the dimensions down on. His footsteps stopped halfway into the kitchen. "This won't be too hard," she heard him say.

The room was silent for a few moments until she felt Claus' arms around her waist. She put her stirring spoon down and put her hands on his arms.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered into her ear before kissing the back of her neck gently.

She reached back and ran her hand through his hair and along the back of his head while he kissed along her neck and down to her shoulder.

"I love you," she said, turning her head towards him. She leaned into him and felt his arms tighten around her midsection. "I love being in your arms," she said softly.

Claus held her for a minute before slowly letting go of her. She turned and kissed him quickly on the mouth before going back to cooking.

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Lavi and Alvis were sitting outside under their covered front porch watching the evening rain. Claus was inside cleaning up the kitchen. There was still light in the sky but the cloud filtered daylight was slowly failing. Lavi was standing next to one of the support beams, Alvis stood next to her.

"Earlier today," said Lavi.

Alvis turned and looked up at her.

"You said you wanted to share Claus, what did you mean?"

Alvis reddened and turned back to face the outside world. She extended her hand out past the porch roof and let her arm catch the rain. She could feel the weight of Lavi's stare. "I love Claus," she said finally, her voice not wavering at all.

Lavi had suspected something like this might be happening. She sighed inwardly and put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Love is a powerful emotion and can make people do stupid things," she said. "It can completely change someone."

Alvis nodded.

"Love comes from somewhere inside that isn't controlled. It's a beast all unto itself, and it can have a ferocious appetite."

"I don't understand," said Alvis, still not looking at Lavi.

"Love can make it hard to share," replied Lavi, staring out into the evening, "Even when it's tame it can be hard to keep yourself from going around in circles over the smallest of things."

Lavi felt Alvis' shoulders slump. The girl looked up at her sadly and then turned around to face the house.

The two stood in silence for a while.

Alvis was wondering what Claus would say, if she told him how she felt. "I'm gonna go back in," she said.

"You haven't done any schoolwork today have you?" asked Lavi.

"That's what I'm going in to do," Alvis lied.

Lavi patted the girl on her head. "Alright," she said, "Do a good job."

She smiled up at her sadly and turned to go back in.

Claus had just finished the dishes when Alvis walked into the kitchen. "Is Lavi still outside?" he asked her. The young teenager nodded. Claus wiped his hands on his towel and hung it on their drying rack. On his way out the kitchen door Alvis grabbed him by the hand. "Can we talk about something?" she asked.

"Sure," replied Claus, looking concerned. He led her back to their table and pulled her seat out for her before sitting down next to her. "What's up?" he asked.

Alvis tried to work her thoughts out but decided to just jump in. "I- " but then she lost her nerve.

Claus cocked his head slightly. "You…?"

The young girl sighed and fought down her panic and emotions. "I want to work in the shop more," she said- not at all what she had wanted to talk about.

Claus grinned broadly. "Sure," he said. "In fact, you can help me tomorrow."

Alvis did her best to smile back. "I know you've showed me how to do a lot but I've never really actually helped you do much," she said, staring down at the table. This wasn't going work, not now anyways. Luckily she didn't have to say anything more. Claus stood up and said that he was going to go outside with Lavi. She sighed as he left and decided she should go find her textbooks.

Outside Claus found Lavi where Alvis had left her, standing next to one of the beams that was holding up their porch roof. "Hey," he said to her, snaking an arm around her waist.

"Hey," she replied, leaning against his shoulder.

"Dinner was good," said Claus, smiling down at her.

She smiled back. "If I ever made a lousy meal would you ever say so?" she teased.

Claus thought for second before replying, "Nope."

Lavi leaned up and pecked him on the cheek. "You're sweet to me," she said.

Claus smirked and nodded.

A few minutes passed while they stood quietly listening to the rain.

"How is your side?" queried Lavi, rubbing a hand along Claus' stomach and chest.

"Meh, it hurts."

"So what happened exactly?" asked Lavi. "I know you don't go looking for trouble."

Claus let out a long breath before replying. "When Alvis and I went to eat we found a little place that only served veterans. I showed someone my service jacket and he took a swing at me."

"That's ridiculous!" exclaimed Lavi.

Claus shrugged. "He said the Sylvana killed his younger brother. At first it was just the guy then his older brother joined in. I put the first guy down and then the second one hit me with a barstool, from there it was just your standard knock down drag out."

"A barstool?"

"Yeah, it hurt like hell. Honestly though, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before, taking the Sylvana's war record and all."

"I suppose," said Lavi, "But that doesn't give them the right to jump you like that."

Claus shrugged again. "What was I to do? I don't think the other guy wanted to make an issue out of it but the first guy slugged me as soon as I tried to leave."

"I'm sorry, Claus," said Lavi, pulling herself closer to him. Claus responded by kissing her on her forehead and next to her eyes.

"It's okay," he said.

They were silent again. The evening was beginning to drift into darkness.

"Maybe you shouldn't show anyone your war record," said Lavi quietly.

"I don't think it will come to that," said Claus. "Or at least, I hope it doesn't."

"I love you, Claus." Lavi turned to face him and leaned up to kiss him. He responded and deepened her kiss.

"I can take care of myself," he said when they parted.

"I know, but I worry."

"Silly girl," said Claus, kissing Lavi gently on the mouth again.

Lavi sighed and leaned into him. "I'm going to go to bed soon," she said. "Hold me for a little while longer."

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Alvis was inside looking over her textbook when she heard the front door open.

"How's it going?" Lavi asked, standing in the doorway.

"Slow," replied Alvis. She was pretty distracted.

Lavi smiled softly and came up to her and put her hand on her head. "I'm going to bed," she said. "See you in the morning."

"Goodnight," said Alvis. "Sweet dreams."

"Thanks," said Lavi. "You should go to bed soon too."

After Lavi left Alvis sprawled her arms out over the table and put her head on them and let her mind wonder.

Claus saw that the rain was starting to pick up and decided it was time to call it a night. Inside he saw that the kitchen light was still on. He found Alvis asleep sprawled out on the table. Pouring himself a glass of water he sipped on it thoughtfully while watching the sleeping girl. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was growing up into an independent teenager, other times it was hard to remember that just a few years ago she was an easily frightened, and easily amazed little girl. For the moment she looked somewhere in between. Claus put his glass in the sink and walked over to gently nudge the sleeping girl. "Time for bed," he whispered to her slowly waking ears. Alvis giggled.

"You're waking me up to tell me to go back to sleep," she said.

Claus blinked several times. "I guess I am," he said and shrugged.

Alvis smiled innocently at him and stood up. Claus turned the kitchen light out as they left the room. "Good night, Claus," she said, hugging him tightly.

"G'night, Al," he said, hugging her back.

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Outside the night was hanging sleepily over the mountains and dimly lit Norkia. Soft thunder rolled out from the sky and slipped over the ground, warm rain followed quickly in its echoes.

Alvis lay curled up in her bed holding tightly to her second pillow while listening to the rain patter against the roof and her window. She yawned sleepily and stretched out catlike across her blanket. After spending so much of the day with Claus her room felt very empty.

Thunder crashed violently in the darkness. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She remembered when the first real storms came. Claus or Lavi would always comfort her. She remembered how Claus would sit on her bed holding her hand until she fell asleep or wrap her in his arms while he stood next to Lavi when the three of them would be in the workshop when it would storm. She sighed and sat up.

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Claus was lying on the couch in their living room, the curtains drawn all the way open so he could stare out the large window overlooking the city dug into the collapsed crater floor. He liked falling asleep looking out the window, it reminded him of the view from his parents' home.

Lightning jumped from cloud to cloud in the night, its white light softly sneaking into the room from time to time. Claus yawned and sat up. He checked his watch. Standing up he walked over to window in his boxers and placed his palms against it. Beads of water were streaming down the other side blurring his view just a little. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the window; it was cool from the night air and his breath fogged in the glass. The world was gray and wet outside.

Claus stood mute and listened to the thunder roll in and out. He loved the rain. He always had, though in the last few years it had come far more frequently than it ever had. Rain used to be a cause for celebration, now it was common enough to be a nuisance at times.

He smiled to himself, content with the evening rain. He heard soft footsteps approach from behind- Lavi probably.

Claus didn't turn around; he just kept on watching through the window. There was a pause in the footsteps as they settled right behind him, then he felt arms around his waist. "Hey, Lavi," he said quietly.

"Not Lavi," said Alvis from behind him.

Claus put his hand on hers. "You're too old to be bothered by the storm now," he said.

"What are you doing awake?" she asked.

Claus stared down at the pixyish girl for a moment, thinking.

Alvis held on to him tighter. "I was remembering how you used to hold me when it would storm," she said after a while. There was something in her voice, something Claus hadn't noticed before. She let go of Claus' waist and stepped in front of him.

He peered at her silently. "You're really growing fast," he said after a minute. She grinned.

"Yup," she chirped. "I've been wearing yours and Lavi's clothes for a while now. I was starting to fall out of my clothes."

Claus looked a little nonplussed and blinked a few times. "We should get you some new clothes," he said. "Actually," he started, "Lavi should get you some new clothes. I don't know the first thing about what girls like to wear."

Alvis shrugged. "For now I'm doing alright with what Lavi gave me."

Again Claus was reminded that she was a growing teenager now at fourteen. He looked her over. "You're filling out well," he said. Alvis blushed furiously. Claus chuckled and shook his head. She seemed to have skipped the awkward lanky teenage stage and was already on her way to becoming a beautiful young woman. She reminded him of Lavi when she was younger. He laughed. Lavi was still young, so was he.

Alvis turned around and faced out the window. The night was deep but the rain washed it into a smeared mural through the glass. She turned back again and faced Claus, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face into his chest. "You've grown too, you know."

"Yeah," said Claus, "I've grown too. You can thank Moran and his ridiculous weight training for that."

Alvis tightened her hold on him.

"You should go back to bed," said Claus, putting his hands on her head and shoulder.

"Can I sleep on the couch with you tonight?" she asked, there was just the slightest hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Don't you think you're too old to need me to sleep with you during a storm?"

Alvis was silent but looked up and held Claus' gaze. Claus sighed inwardly (and just a little outwards as well). "Alright," he said, "Go grab your pillow and change out of your day clothes."

"Okay," replied Alvis, beaming.

Claus yawned yet again and waited for her to come back.

Alvis padded back into the room wearing socks and nightshirt that only came down to her waist, not even covering her blue and green striped panties. She scratched absently at her naked legs while she waited for Claus to bury himself in the couch sheets and make room for her.

Thunder echoed in the darkness outside. Claus could still hear the rain plinking against the window.

Alvis lifted the sheet and slid in next to him. She didn't lay down though, she kept herself propped up slightly on her arm. For the briefest of moments Claus thought she looked frightened. Then her features settled and she reached out and ran a finger down his cheek and let it linger on his lips. She smiled bashfully and leaned down to gently press her lips against his for just a moment. "Good night, Clause" she whispered before settling down and rolling to face the window. She reached up for his hand and pulled it tight around her body and intertwined their fingers.

Claus didn't say anything but he left his arm around her. She could hear his breathing close to her ear. She sighed. That wasn't exactly what she had intended to do, though now that she thought about it she had no idea what she had intended to do.

Alvis ran her free hand across her thighs and side and then slowly rolled around again to face him. He was wide awake, which startled her. She smiled weakly but didn't meet his eyes. She still had his hand in hers and put it across her waist and back and then reached up and draped her arm against his chest and leaned her forehead up against his chin and lips. Claus lifted his arm off of her and shifted around. She held her breath. Claus snaked his arm around her again and pulled her body closer to him. Alvis let her breath out. She leaned up and kissed him on the mouth again and shifted so that her back was against his chest. Again he coiled his arm around her waist and let his hand rest flatly against the lower part of her stomach.

She could feel him tracing little lines against her stomach for a minute with his fingers before he stopped. She could feel his breath against the back of her head slow down and deepen. He was asleep. She let her mind wonder for a while before finally collapsing into dreams. She dreamed of Claus.

Alvis woke and saw that it was still dark outside; she probably had only slept a few hours. She rubbed her eyes and felt around for Claus' hand or arm. She found it. His arm had slipped farther down her waist and his fingers were resting a little ways under her panties, just brushing against her bush. Alvis drew in her breath sharply and turned her head slowly to see if Claus was awake. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow and even. She could even see light red lines on his face from his pillow. He was definitely asleep.

She rolled back and pressed her back gently against his chest again. She could feel the light pressure of his fingers against her soft mound of silvery blonde. She ran her hands across her tummy and down to Claus' hand and put her hand over his and added a little more pressure. She felt a light wave of heat ripple up through her body from her inner thighs. She added more pressure and slipped his hand further down until his fingers just brushed the top of her lips. Alvis half moaned half sighed. She gently rubbed his hand across her bush and then slipped it down to cup her lips.

She threw the covers back from her and carefully pulled Claus' hand out of her underwear and rolled to face him. She carefully slid his hand back down the front of her panties and let it rest there, then she pressed herself against him and wrapped her upper leg around his and reached around behind herself and slid her hand under the back of her underwear and found her inner lips. Massaging her fingers back and forth across her slippery opening Alvis had to bite down hard not to moan loudly. She rocked back and forth and slowly ground her body against Claus' hand. She was lost in the warmth and scent of his of his body. She pushed her fingers inside of herself briefly before lifting her leg up and pressing Claus' finger against her clit and lowering her leg back across him. She circled her fingers around her inner lips and stroked her moist flesh. Finally a moan escaped her clenched lips and she breathed hotly against Claus. Claus stirred and his eyes fluttered open. His pupils were dilated badly and suddenly they focused on her. He grinned tiredly.

Claus looked down at Alvis' naked legs and saw his hand disappear under her panties. He could feel her soft hair against his wrist and her glowing warmth pouring over his fingers and slick against his palm. She moaned again and pressed herself against him. Her face was flush and she kept burying it in his shoulders and neck and chest.

Claus pulled his hand from out between her damp thighs and wiped it on the sheet. Alvis still thrashed about against him, her own hands still moving between her legs and under her shirt.

"Alvis stop," Claus whispered into her ear. She slowed but didn't stop entirely. Claus put his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. "Alvis, please stop this." She slowed a little more and finally stopped. When she looked up at Claus her cheeks were crimson and tears were pouring out of the corners of her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Claus," she whimpered.

Claus sat up. Alvis just rolled further into the couch. Claus was silent while he listened to the girl's muffled sobs. Finally he leaned over and put his hand out so that it would rest on her leg. He kept it there so that she would not feel like he was trying to separate himself from her. He just needed a second to think.

Alvis' sobs lessened and eventually stopped altogether. She rolled onto her back and faced Claus, who was staring out the window.

His hand was still resting on her leg. The gentle touch was too much for her. She bolted up and threw herself onto Claus' lap and flung her arms around his neck and cried into his neck and shoulders. She pulled back to look at Claus, a river of tears streaming down her face. Claus leaned forward and kissed her below each eye and ran his thumb over her streaked cheeks. "I don't know what to say," he whispered.

By now Lavi had heard the commotion and came into the den to see what was wrong.

Alvis saw Lavi and hugged Claus even tighter. "Oh, please, please don't tell Lavi," she pleaded. "Please, just don't tell Lavi."

Claus turned and caught Lavi's eye. Lavi looked both curious and concerned. "What's wrong?" she asked; sleep clearly trying to re-take her.

"Alvis had a bad dream," said Claus. The tired look in his eyes was convincing and Lavi nodded. She walked over to the pair and ran her hands through Alvis' hair. The younger girl shied away from the touch. Lavi blinked in surprise.

"Sorry," said Alvis, her voice cracking.

Lavi smiled weakly and touched her hand to Alvis' tear stained cheek. "Go back to sleep soon," she said softly. Alvis nodded.

Lavi turned to go but Claus reached out and caught her by the wrist. He didn't say anything, he just held her eye. He gently squeezed her hand and let her go. She smiled and touched her finger to her lips and placed it on Claus' before turning to go.

After Lavi left, Alvis calmed down and breathed heavily into Claus' neck. She rubbed her cheeks against him and filled her nostrils with his scent. She ran her hands over his shoulders and leaned back to look at him again. The little core of warmth was starting to burn inside of her again, at the joining of her legs. Claus put his hands on her thighs and just looked at her. Alvis forced her breathing to slow and tried to ignore her own arousal.

"I want you, Clause." The words were out of her mouth and hanging in the air before Alvis could stop or think or even gasp at herself. Then her mouth decided to keep going. "I want you to fill me up. I want to be in your arms. I want to always feel your warmth, to always hear your voice. I want to always be protected by you. I want- " She was cut off when Claus put his finger against her lips.

"You're still just a little girl, Alvis," he said. "You shouldn't even bee thinking about these things."

Alvis was silent for a moment, thinking. "All your life you've had Lavi," she began. "You've had your need to be close to someone satiated, even if you didn't know it."

Claus knew Alvis couldn't be more wrong but he let her finish her thought.

"Up until I met you and Lavi all I had were protectors and caretakers, no one to treat me as an equal or as a friend, only as something to be shielded and protected. When you would hold me and whisper in my ear you showed me kindness, you showed me love." Alvis stopped and let her thoughts catch up with her. "I want that love Claus, I want your love." She dropped her head and stared at Claus' shoulders, unwilling to watch his face for reactions. "Besides," she said, "You started it. And I'm not that little anymore."

"I wha?" stammered Claus.

"You started it, when I woke up you had your hand between my legs."

Claus didn't say anything at all for a full minute. "I was asleep," he finally said. Even to him it sounded weak. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You were dreaming about Lavi, weren't you?" Alvis stared at Claus blankly.

Claus fidgeted. He had been dreaming about Lavi but he wasn't sure if admitting it would further hurt Alvis.

"Yeah," he said, "I was dreaming about her". Claus felt his own cheeks heating as he blushed.

Alvis sighed. "It's okay," she said. Turning to look out the window she saw that it was still raining.

"I'm sorry," repeated Claus.

Alvis yawned; the heat inside of her was beginning to cool. "I guess we are even," she said. Claus took her hands in his but didn't say anything for a little while. Alvis unraveled her hands from his and leaned forward to hug him tightly. "I love you," she whispered into his ear. Claus was still silent. She hugged him tighter. "Please," she said, "Say something."

Claus leaned back into the couch and looked at her. She had unwrapped her arms from his neck and sat straddling his lap, her hands resting on his chest. He took her hands and held them for a moment, then carefully brought them to his lips and kissed her finger tips. "I have two hearts," he said quietly. "One for you and one for Lavi. I love each of you more than any one person should be allowed to love another." Claus let his thought hang in the air. Alvis shifted on his lap. Claus closed his eyes and sighed. "Lets go back to sleep," he said, suddenly sounding very tired. Alvis sat quietly on Claus lap and listened to the rain.

"Do you love me like you love Lavi?" she asked.

Claus yawned again and sighed and then looked down. Alvis pulled her hands out of his and stood up to walk over to the window. Claus stretched and massaged his neck for a moment before lying back down on the couch. Alvis put her hand up against the cool glass and watched the rain stream down the slick surface. She traced a few beads of water down with her fingers before sighing and turning around to face him. He was watching her but it was clear he was fading.

She walked back to the couch and stood in front of him. Claus reached out and took her hand and pulled her back against him.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" she asked, settling into the cushions and against his chest.

"No," he replied.

"I love you," whispered Alvis.

Claus hugged her tightly. "I love you too," he said, and kissed the side of her neck. "But I don't love you like I love Lavi. Can we just leave it at that for now?"

Alvis nodded but didn't say anything, afraid her voice would crack.

The rain bore on through the night, its soft rhythm lulled the two quickly to sleep and into dreams.

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Alvis opened her eyes and saw Claus standing in front of the window. Dawn was breaking across the horizon. He scratched absently at his bandage. Alvis sneezed. Claus turned around and saw that she was awake. "You should go back to sleep," he said.

Alvis sat up and rubbed her eyes. She noticed that Claus had changed into shorts and shoes. "Are you going to Moran's?"

Claus nodded.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked. "Doesn't your side hurt?"

"A lot more than just my side hurts," replied Claus massaging his neck and shoulder. "Lavi will probably scold me for going over there today but I want to see what I can do."

She shrugged and slumped back into the couch.

Claus left the window and walked into the kitchen. Alvis heard water running. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Instead she remembered the feel of Claus' hands. She rolled into the couch and put her back to the world outside.

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Sunlight poured into Lavi's room. She opened her eyes and blinked away the brightness. The room was already beginning to warm so she threw off her blanket and sat up, her nightshirt hanging down off of one of her shoulders. She yawned and sat motionless for a few minutes letting her body drink in the morning warmth. Finally she stood and went to her closet to dress.

Her clothing selection was always limited, though that was partly by choice. While in the beginning both Claus and her had possessed few articles of clothing now that they had a steady income they still both chose a more spartan wardrobe. Neither found much occasion to dress up and both were perfectly content to wear simple, labor friendly clothes. She put on a clean pair of workpants and a faded t-shirt that hung loosely from her body- it was one of Claus'. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at herself. She had a brief flash of recollection from the Sylvana, remembering seeing Tatiana wearing the clothes she had made for Claus. She sighed delicately and brought a slender finger up to her lips. Enough of that, she thought. That was in the past. She got along fine with Tatiana now.

Though she didn't really need to have Claus share his clothes with her she simply liked it, and Claus didn't seem to mind. She walked barefoot into the living room and found Alvis laying on the couch, sheets tossed away from her slender body. The younger girl was awake and staring blankly out the window.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked Alvis.

Alvis sat up slowly, her hair cascading about her face, and looked sadly at Lavie. "You should be the one sleeping with him," she said, "Not me."

Lavi sat down next to the girl and sank into the deep cushions. "He left for Moran's, didn't he?" she asked.

Alvis nodded. "He said you would scold him when he got home but he wanted to try today."

Lavi sighed. She wouldn't scold him; she would just ask him not to push himself for a while. He would listen. He always did.

"Lavi," said Alvis, "Is it okay that I asked Claus if I could sleep with him last night?"

Lavi turned to the younger girl. "It's something you used to do a lot," she replied.

Alvis looked away. "Isn't it different now?"

Lavi didn't really want to answer, much less keep up the conversation. The fact was she did want to be the one sleeping with Claus. She had done it a few times but was nervous about it becoming a regular arrangement. She wanted to be close to him, but was frightened of where it might lead. It was something she was hoping she could ease into over time. Normally Alvis spending the night with Claus was something that would happen from time to time. She had always though of themselves as her de facto parents. But now Alvis was growing up and acting differently.

"I'm sorry," said Alvis after Lavi's prolonged silence. "I didn't mean to get into this."

"It's alright," replied the older girl, putting her hand on the back of Alvis' neck. "You're just growing up," she said. "Claus and I are still growing up too."

Alvis sighed.

"We've just had to grow up faster in some areas," continued Lavi, "While others lagged behind."

"Yeah," said Alvis, "You're right." She sighed again and put her head against Lavi's shoulder.

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Lavi heard the front door turn softly and watched Claus come in from outside. He was drenched in sweat. When he saw her, a quick flurry of emotions played across his face, most of which she didn't understand. What she did understand was the soft touch to her cheek and the kiss to her forehead.

"I'm home," he said gently.

Alvis was still sitting next to Lavi and got up to walk into the kitchen. Claus watched her as she left and gave a barely audible sigh.

"Alvis said you would be expecting me to be cross with you for working out this morning," said Lavi.

"Heh, yeah, I figured you wouldn't like it."

Lavi reached up and took Claus' hand and pulled him down to sit next to her. "Don't make yourself worse," she said, leaning against his larger form. "Promise me you will let yourself heal up."

Claus put an arm around her shoulder and rubbed his palm against the side of her arm. "Alright," he said. "I promise."

Lavi smiled at him. "Thanks," she said, and leaned over to kiss him warmly.

The two sat together for a few minutes in silence before Lavi got up to make breakfast. "I'm worried about Alvis," she said as she got up.

Claus stared out the window and remained silent. "Do you think you could go over to Alistia's today?" he asked as she left for the kitchen.

"What for?" asked Lavi.

"She called yesterday and asked me to come by and look at their vanship today. I guess I forgot to mention it to you last night."

"Alright," replied Lavi. "Will you try to talk to Alvis today while I'm gone?" she asked. "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

Claus sighed and stood up. "I'm going to go shower," he said and then paused. "Would you like to join me?" he asked.

Lavi blushed and shook her head.

Claus kissed at the corner of her mouth as he passed by her going to the bathroom.

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Alvis sat on her bed with her back against the wall. Lavi had just left to walk over to Alistia and Tatiana's. She stood up and walked to her window. Outside she could see Claus sitting at a workbench in the workshop looking over the drawings Lavi had given him the night before. She sighed, knowing she should go out and help him. She really did enjoy working in the shop, but today she just didn't want to have to face him.

----------------------------------------------------

Claus sat with his back to the workshop door sketching out what he wanted to do for Moran's fuel tank. He didn't really need to sketch it, he already had a pretty decent schematic from Moran, it just helped him get into his work- helped him clear his head. Behind him heard a hard clang on the half open workshop door. He turned and saw one of the older pilots from the Consortium. He stood and walked over to the door.

"Mr. Kusagi," said Claus, "What can I do for you?"

The older man extended his hand and Claus shook it firmly.

"I need something of a favor," said Mr. Kusagi, his voice more like a growl.

"Alright," replied Claus, "Shoot."

"I need you to make me an oil pump and tank to fit my old Barnet-Vought D99."

Claus made an odd face and walked back to thumb through a large stack of catalogs, Mr. Kusagi following closely. "Why don't you get it from a parts merchant?" he asked.

"Discontinued."

Claus "hmmmed" thoughtfully as he continued to browse the catalogs. "How big is it?" he asked.

"It's actually almost the same size and make as the one in your Vickers 108 Single, it's just has a longer feed and has the reservoir resting on either side of the pump housing in a kind of upside down 'U' configuration with a double inlet instead of tilted off to the side like the one on the Vickers."

Claus picked up another catalog and found the oil pump and pan for his own vanship and closed it with a large sheet of paper marking the spot. "I think I can accommodate you," he said. "It's going to be kind of a pain to retool the pan and housing though."

Mr. Kusagi stroked his light beard and looked away from Claus for a moment. "There is a problem," he said.

"Payment?" queried Claus, preemptively.

The old man looked uncomfortable but nodded. "I can pay you Claus," he said, "Just not all at once. Harry and I have been having problems keeping the money coming once the oil pump went out on us. The world doesn't stop for you just because you get in a bind."

Claus nodded. He knew all to well the curve balls life could throw. He thought to ask about Mrs. Kusagi but then he remembered that she had died during the Dusis attack. He probably shouldn't ask about Harry's wife either.

"I can pay you half of the pump and pan cost as soon as you finish," continued Mr. Kusagi. "But you will have to give me some time for the rest. Will that be a problem for you?"

Claus shook his head. "No, Mr. Kusagi, that will be fine," he said. Claus never really got 'charity' requests, so doing this would be a nice, if not labor intensive, little project. "I'll get on it just as soon as I finish making a fuel tank for another customer."

"You're actually making a fuel tank? Why not just patch the old one?"

Claus laughed. "That's what I said. It's a mess, replacing it is a better bet. Plus it's cheaper if I just make it instead of paying to have a new one flown in, cut out the middle man you know."

The older gentleman nodded. "Aye, you're a good businessman Claus, willing to go that extra distance."

Claus smiled. "I don't get a lot of shop work, to be honest," he said. "It's mostly just the occasional maintenance request. Lavi and I make most of our money from taking jobs through the Consortium. The last month or so has been a little different with all the mechanical work we've done"

"I noticed you are flying with Alvis now."

Claus nodded again. "Yeah, she has a lot to learn, but she will make a fine navi some day."

"You could always teach her to fly, you know."

Claus tilted his head to the side. "You know, that hadn't occurred to me. There really isn't a reason why she can't learn to fly as well; then she can have a choice."

Mr. Kusagi leaned heavily against the table Claus was standing in front of. "Is she in school yet?" he asked.

"No," said Claus, "Lavi and I are trying to work that in. For now we are teaching her what we can ourselves."

"I see. You take good care of that girl, Claus. She will make you proud some day."

Claus remained quiet but nodded in agreement. "I should probably get an order made for your pump before I get to work on anything else," he said, grabbing the catalog he had bookmarked. "You don't have a telephone, do you?"

Mr. Kusagi shook his head. "No, son, afraid I don't."

"I'm sure I'll find a way to get in touch with you then," replied Claus.

The older man smiled tiredly. "I don't doubt it, Claus."

The shook hands and parted. Claus went inside to call the parts merchant.

---------------------------------------------------

Alvis heard the back door slam as Claus came in.

A few minutes later there was a light knock on her door. "Alvis?" called Claus. "I'm going to start work in the shop. I'm going to need your help- I picked up a second project."

She sighed and rolled to face the wall.

Outside the door Claus waited for a reply from the younger girl. None came. After a minute of waiting he slumped his shoulders and walked back outside.

-------------------------------------------------

Alistia was sitting at her kitchen table reading the manual for the new vanship she and Tatiana would be testing. Though the term "manual" is loosely applied here, it was really more like an encyclopedia and she wasn't even halfway done with it. Tatiana had already read most of it, but that was Tatiana- always the best, always the fastest, and almost always right. She sighed and put the book down, massaging the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb. It wasn't that it was difficult to understand, it was just very dense and very technical. She knew more than a thing or two about vanships but sometimes it took her mind a few tries to completely wrap itself around high volumes of information.

There was a soft knock at the door. She had gotten so absorbed in her reading that she had forgotten that Claus was supposed to come by. She hadn't expected him to come in the morning. She stood up to go answer the door but Tatiana was already there, undoing the locks. The door opened and Alistia saw Lavi standing in the doorway. She sighed and let her heart sink into her stomach.

"Lavi?" asked Tatiana, surprised to see the other girl.

"Alistia asked me to come look at your vanship," replied Lavi. "She didn't tell you?"

Tatiana shook her head and shrugged. "It's outback in our hangar," she said. "I didn't know there was anything wrong with it."

Alistia appeared beside Tatiana. "It wouldn't start yesterday when I was checking over it."

Tatiana thought Alistia sounded a little unsure of herself but didn't ask about it as she led the two girls through the house and out the back door.

"I don't really know where to start," said Lavi. "Claus just told me this morning that you called yesterday asking him to come by."

Tatiana shot Alistia a venomous glance as she opened the door to the small hangar. Lavi didn't notice. She sat her tool bag down next the vanship and opened up the engine compartment.

------------------------------------------------------

Alvis opened the back door and stepped into the sunlight. It was warm outside, though not heated enough that she began to perspire. She trod through the grass in her heavy boots and walked into the workshop. Inside she found Claus carefully cutting through a segment of metal with a plasma torch; his back was turned to her. She grabbed a pair of goggles from the rack next to the door and softly walked up to him. She watched him work for a minute before putting a hand on his back. He thumbed off his torch and turned to look at her. He still had his tinted goggles on so she couldn't really read his expression. Thankfully he lifted them to his forehead and smiled at her.

"You came out," he said.

"Yeah," she replied. "You said you needed my help."

Claus nodded. "Even if I didn't, I'm always happy to have you with me," he said.

Alvis smiled weakly. "I want to say something to make things right again."

Claus put his torch down and sat down on the table. "You are still thinking there is something wrong," he said, his eyes level with hers. "You, Lavi, I, we're all still growing and we don't really have any guidance."

"That's what Lavi said," replied Alvis.

"You told her?" Claus looked surprised.

"Er, no. I didn't tell her, we managed to talk about it without really talking about it," she said.

Claus looked away from her. "Lavi and I have talked about this in the past, us growing up without anyone to really help us. We didn't have an answer then and I don't really have an answer now. We will just have to take each day as it comes and try to be as understanding as possible with each other."

"Do you and Lavi have any… problems?"

"Nothing that won't get worked out eventually," replied Claus. "And nothing that hurts us."

"If she let you, would you start sleeping with her?"

Claus regarded Alvis quietly. "Why do you ask? Has she mentioned it?"

"No, I just had this though this morning that she should be the one sleeping next to you, not me."

Claus smiled sadly. "We will cross that bridge someday, but not today."

Alvis nodded.

"I drop hints of my more… physical attractions to her. She gets them, but just isn't ready yet."

"What do we need to do today?" asked Alvis, changing the subject.

Claus stood up from the table. "Well, I need to finish this fuel tank for Moran and then you and I need to fly over to the parts merchant and pick up an oil pump."

"What can I do to help?"

Claus smiled. "I'll find something for you in a minute. Let me finish this section first." He pulled his goggles down and lit the torch. With a "whoof" a glowing flame poured out of the nozzle and danced around for a moment before he focused it down to a narrow blade of white searing heat.

Alvis watched Claus work; she let herself admire the heart of the flame Claus was wielding before pulling her own goggles down.

Claus' skill with metal was something Alvis hoped to learn some day. She had watched him learn over the few years she had been with him. At first he had been awkward. He broke, burned, and melted countless pieces of pipe and steel. He even welded one of his magnetic clamps to a workbench once. He had tried working with wood a few times and it didn't take very well. He had said something about it being too temperamental. The only thing he ever really made out of wood was the bed she slept on. And of course their home. So maybe Claus did work with wood sometimes.

He finished his cut and put the piece of metal off to the side and moved on to a fresh piece. He started again and worked through several more.

The morning streamed on and after half an hour Claus had finished cutting and cleaning the metal he needed.

Alvis had moved off to the side and was sitting on the wing of their vanship while Claus worked. She hadn't said anything to him since he had started. He was coiling the fuel hose to his torch when he looked up at her.

"Want to learn something new today?" he called to her.

She didn't reply. Instead she hopped off of her perch and sauntered up to him. "Alright," she said.

Claus put his hand on her head. "Alright," he said back to her. "Wait here, I'll be back in a minute." He shouldered the heavy fuel tank and grabbed the torch from the bench and lumbered into the back storage room where he kept some of his more expensive portable tools. A minute later he emerged towing a medium sized red box with several gages and dials on it. Attached to it was a length of tubing that ended in a copper colored nozzle with a handle and trigger. He left the device on the ground next to his bench and walked over to an outlet and plugged it into the larger heavy socket and walked back. Opening the side of it up Alvis saw several spools of wire. He fiddled around with the wire briefly before closing it back up.

"There is a lot to learn here," he said, "But for now it's good enough for you to just know how." He put down the gun end and walked over to the side of the shop and grabbed a thick leather jacket and gauntlets as well as a large mask. "Put these on," he said.

Alvis put the heavy leather on over her clothes and fit the mask to her head. "Kind of hot in this," she said.

Claus nodded. "Yeah, it will be pretty warm."

"Okay," said Alvis, "What do I do?"

Claus picked up the mig welder's gun and handed it to Alvis. "When you squeeze the thumb trigger the welder will start feeding out wire that has a strong electric current passing through it. When it comes in contact with the metal it will heat and melt the wire to create the weld. Your job is to make sure the weld fills the connecting volume between the metal pieces."

"Er…"

"You'll see what I mean in a minute," replied Claus. "When you're running the wire you want to either make small circular motions with the welder or in trough-like arcs, that way you are sure to cover the entire surface."

"You're going to show me, right?"

"Of course," said Claus, chuckling. "There are two types of welds you do. Tack welds are short, small welds that you do just to hold the two pieces together while you weld the main body. They are easily broken that way if you mess up you can just do it over." He put two pieces of scrap metal down on the bench and clamped them down with magnets and took the welder from Alvis. "Close your eyes," he said before making a series of quick tack welds. He gave her the welder back and stood up.

Alvis put the polarized mask down. Claus reached over and pulled it back up. "Don't put it down yet," he said. He stood behind her and put his gauntleted hands over hers. He pulled down his own polarized goggles. "Watch," he said, tugging her own mask down.

Alvis couldn't see anything behind the mask. Suddenly a burning green light poured through. She saw an intense corona of flickering light; in the backwash she could see the dark outlines of the workbench and shadowy swaths of the metal Claus was using her hands to weld.

"Slow circular movements," he said.

She could sort of feel what he was getting at, but the fine control was difficult to translate through the thick gloves, and the welding gun was shaped like an upside down L, it took her whole hand to grip it.

"Hold on to the top part with your other hand if you need to. Try controlling the motion with your forward hand from there. Just make sure not to grip the copper end piece."

She did so, and he let go of her. After a moment the weld stopped. She frowned under the mask and squeezed the thumb trigger again. Nothing. She pulled her mask up and examined the gun.

"You pulled back a little and lost contact," said Claus.

She could see a long strand of wire sticking out of the end. Claus took some wire cutters and clipped it short.

"Don't let the wire feed too long, keep the nozzle close to the metal."

"Alright," replied Alvis. She tried again and this time made it to the end of the metal piece. She pulled her mask up to inspect her weld. It was splotching and vicious looking- definitely not a good weld. She frowned. Claus chuckled.

"A good weld will sound like bacon frying loudly."

"Of course," said Alvis, "You would be the one to compare working with metal to food."

Claus snorted. "Well, that's what it sounds like."

Alvis shrugged. "Okay, let's try this again."

Claus discarded the metal Alvis had welded and gave her two new pieces. She began again. This time she welded in shorter strips at a time and would stop to inspect her progress.

"That's better," said Claus. "Welding only takes a few minutes to learn how to do but it takes a long time to get good at it, and even longer to have confidence enough to put it to real use."

Alvis nodded. She coughed delicately- the air smelled harshly of scorched ozone. "How much can I practice today?" she asked.

Claus thought for a moment. "A little while longer," he said, "I have a fair amount of scrap metal lying around."

After half an hour of welding Alvis took her mask off and rubbed her eyes. No matter what she did she couldn't get rid of purple splotch in the center of her vision.

"You need to stop pulling your mask up while you weld," said Claus.

"It's hard to see," she replied.

"You get used to it." Claus picked up the metal pieces in front of her and tossed them into a bin. "I need to get back to work on Moran's fuel tank. Then we can head over to the parts merchant."

"Okay."

Claus gathered up his welding garb from Alvis and put it on over his work clothes. "It will be nice to have some help with this kind of stuff," he said. "Lavi is a fine mechanic, better than me, but she doesn't really enjoy fabricating. She helps sometimes but she just doesn't get into it."

"How soon until I can really help you?"

Claus shrugged. "We'll see. But we gotta get the right balance. Eventually we are going to try and get you into school, plus you are still learning how to navi."

"Could I learn to pilot too?"

Claus put his welder down and smiled at her. "You know, Mr. Kusagi suggested that."

"Who?"

"One of the older guys from the Consortium, the same person I am going to be making a new oil pump for."

"I see," replied Alvis, sitting down on the work bench beside Claus. "When can you teach me to fly?"

"One thing at a time," said Claus, pulling down his mask. "Eyes."

Alvis pulled down her own mask and watched Claus go to work on Moran's fuel tank.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, the starter is fine and the battery and alternator are both good," said Lavi, pulling her head out of the vanship engine.

Alistia stood next to Lavi while Tatiana sat in the cockpit. "Ill try starting it again," said Tatiana.

Nothing.

"I can see the starter pump firing once," said Lavi, "but after that, nothing."

"Could it be a broken flywheel?" asked Tatiana.

Lavi shook her head, "If that were the case it would start and die or start and make an awful racket." She looked at Alistia, who shrugged in turn. "What exactly did you look at last time you did your maintenance?"

Alistia thought for a moment. "I think it was the SCE."

Lavi frowned. "Why would you mess with your solution cell equalizer?"

Alistia looked away for a moment. "The mixture kept remixing after I would adjust it."

Lavi sighed loudly. "Still, that is one thing you shouldn't be messing with; I don't even want to touch it."

Alistia shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry," she said.

Lavi scratched her head. "Alright, I'll see if the reset mechanism will work. It rarely does though, so you will probably have to find your flight manual, it should tell us what the settings should be."

"Alright," replied Alistia, turning to jog back to the house.

Lavi backed away from the engine and put her socket wrench down and grabbed a crescent wrench. "Thankfully the SCE isn't very hard to get to," she said.

"What exactly does it do?" askes Tatiana.

"What, you don't know how your own vanship works?"

Tatiana blushed mildly, "I understand how most of it works, but I never did serious mechanical work on it, the Navy only taught us how to replace what was most common to break down and what could be easily changed in the field without equipment."

"I see," said Lavi, unfastening the heavy bolts that held on to the SCE outer cover. "Never too late to learn. The SCE governs the solution mixture based on your engine type. It tweaks it, so to speak, right before it passes into the engine. I think it's supposed to generate an electric field shaped a certain way, it's what energizes the solution mixture."

"Why did you say we shouldn't mess with it?"

"There are a series of solenoids that that fluid passes through. When you adjust the mechanism you change the coil geometry."

"So why does that prevent the engine from starting?"

"If the claudia solution passing through the mechanism isn't energized correctly it wont react in the engine, thus not engaging the alternator. So the engine is technically starting, but it is stalling immediately, so fast it can't undergo any real mechanical processes."

Tatiana shrugged. "I just want it to run. Is it hard to figure out the correct settings?"

"Well, there is a reset mechanism that is supposed to restore the solenoid shapes to some sort of universal base standard, but most vanship engines are so finely tuned that they wont accept it."

Tatiana sat mute in the cockpit while Lavi fiddled with the side panel to the device. "Let's see if this works."

"Can I start it?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Tatiana hit her start button and heard the WHAM of the starter piston. The engine thrummed for a moment then chugged violently and died.

"Dammit," cursed Lavi. "Good news: your SCE is definitely your culprit. Bad news: the reset mechanism doesn't work. If Alistia can't find your manual it could potentially take a very long time to get it back to the correct settings."

"Does a vanship really need this?"

"Huh? Why would you ask that?" asked Lavi.

"I don't know; it seems like someone is making this more complicated than it needs to be."

Lavi shrugged. "Claudia solution is inert unless it passes through an electromagnetic field. The water is just a medium through which to pass the claudia mineral. We could use vegetable oil if we wanted to, but then the solution velocity through the field direction system would be so slow that vanships wouldn't be able to function."

Tatiana hopped down from her pilot's seat and leaned on the engine next to Lavi. "How did you pick all of this up Lavi? I've been flying vanships for years but I feel like I hardly know how it works now."

Lavi thought for a moment. "Well, you're a differently sort of flight crew. You were trained for combat, trained to treat your vanship as an extension of your body, and trained fairly quickly. Claus and I have been flying since we were young, even when our parents were alive. Alistia and yourself are relative new comers. The military trained you in what they thought you needed to know in order to fly knowing maintenance would be handled by a deck crew."

Tatiana folded her arms in front of her. "Alistia and I are going to be flight testing a new type of vanship," she said.

"Oh?" replied Lavi.

She nodded. "We're reading the mechanical manuals for it now, we're both having trouble wrapping our heads around it all- especially Alistia. No, I take that back. I'm having just as much trouble as she is. I wonder if I would have been better off knowing more about regular vanship engines first."

"Regular?"

"Yeah, this one has a completely new kind of engine."

"Realy?"

"Yeah, I can't really talk about it yet though. We will be doing our first flight test soon"

"I understand," replied Lavi.

The two girls were quiet for a few minutes, waiting for Alistia to return with the manual. They sat side by side on the stubby vanship wing.

"Hey, Lavi?" queried Tatiana.

"Hmm?"

"I've been meaning to ask you: how are you doing? After what happened in the market a few months ago, I mean."

Lavi chewed absently at her lower lip. "I'm alright more or less," she said. "It doesn't like give me nightmares or anything."

"Does it affect you at all?"

Lavi looked away distractedly. "Lately Claus has been dropping some not so subtle hints about his affections," she said. "More than just his normal mushy self I mean."

Tatiana chuckled a little. "It's funny hearing you describe him like that. I know he is kind, and I know he is affectionate to you, but that just sounds funny calling him mushy."

Lavi smiled. "I am never in doubt when it comes to knowing his feelings towards me, for that I'm really grateful, and I truly feel loved and appreciated. But he also doesn't hold back when it comes to some of his other desires either."

"I see," replied Tatiana. "Have you said anything about this?"

Lavi shook her head. "Honestly I want to be comfortable with our intimacy, but at the moment it just doesn't feel right. We still sleep in separate beds, and our affections are intense but not… heated. I don't want to tell him to stop. I'm glad that he has these desires for me; if anything it feels really wonderful knowing that he has them. But I can't seem to acknowledge my own. I feel them, I know they are there, but I'm afraid to pay attention to them."

"Any reason why?"

"I don't know. Sometimes I think I'm afraid it will change me, or just completely consume me. Or maybe it will change him. I just don't know." Lavi pursed her lips and shook her head. "Maybe it's just because things have been happening so fast lately. I mean, I've been living with this man for years, but now sometimes I feel like my feet aren't planted so steadily anymore."

Tatiana put her hand on Lavi's shoulder. "You two will be fine," she said.

Lavi smiled. "Yeah, we have all the time in the world to figure things out."

Off to the side the girls heard the house door slam. They turned to see Alistia walking towards them. She had a look of embarrassment.

"Did you find it?" asked Tataian.

Alistia shook her head.

Lavi sighed. "Alright, looks like we do this the hard way. Who knows, maybe I'll guess right from the get go."

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"Alright," said Claus. Now that the tank is done I'll let it sit while we go pick up that oil pump.

Sitting next to Claus Alvis pulled up her mask as well. "How do you know it won't leak?" she asked. Claus had brought his cutting torch back out and set her up with some old plate metal and let her practice cutting out large shapes that he had drawn for her while he had been welding Moran's tank together.

"I'll fill it with water when we get back. Then I'll patch it up if I need to."

"That's kind of clever," said Alvis, standing up.

Claus shrugged. "Just common sense, I guess."

Alvis walked over to the door and hung her goggles up. "Will I be able to help you for real with the oil pump?"

"Yeah," replied Claus. "You can help me fore real, instead of just practice."

"Cause you keep saying I can help, but then I don't really do much."

"I know," said Claus, "But it takes a lot of preparation."

Alvis nodded.

"Go get your gloves and goggles," said Claus, "We're gonna make a quick run to the parts merchant."

"I don't need my flight suit?"

"Nah, just grab your coat."

"Okay." Alvis bounded off and disappeared into the house.

Claus finished putting his tools away and headed in to grab his own coat and goggles.

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Kirov sat motionless, thinking. The afternoon was dragging on and his father was pacing silently.

The Anatore Empire was pushing for the Dusith citizens to begin returning to their homeland. This was happening far sooner than Kirov had hoped for, and his father was not resisting as much as he would have liked. In fact, his father was hardly resisting at all. Kirov had anticipated using the citizenry already here in Anatore after he had already come to power. He would have to accelerate his plans.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts, father," said Kirov, rising.

"Be sure you are ready for our meeting with the Empress and her counsel," replied his father.

"Yes, father."

Kirov knew what he had to do, but he wasn't sure yet if he was ready. He would have to test himself first. He stopped briefly as he passed by one of the mirrors in the hall and studied himself. He had very sharp features. His prematurely grayed hair was pulled back into a tight pony tail and hung limp across his shoulders. He wore thinly framed glasses that rested on a sharp, thin nose. His build was actually quite powerful but he hid his compact strength under the traditional red robes of a Dusith Lord. He stared icily at himself and quickly turned to pace briskly away.

At only twenty-two he more than ever felt the weight of his responsibility, knowing that he would have to steel himself greatly in order to push himself through the channels of power.

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Alvis had only ever been to the parts merchant once before. She had gotten lost. Clause had teased her about it afterwards but was pleased to see her enthusiasm. Now they were back. Claus was inside talking with the merchant while Alvis walked around the large field strewn with older vanships and large machinery. The newer stuff was kept safe inside.

She walked up a row that had a large heavy lift vanship at the end. Its compartment bay was open and she stepped inside. Her boots clanged loudly on the corroded metal decking. Everything was soaked. She wanted to sit down but she didn't want to get her clothes dirty. She poked her head back outside and looked up into the still gray sky. A drop of water leaked down from the roof and splashed into her eye.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, startled.

On the other end of the field she could hear the heavy door slam to the larger office/warehouse building.

"Alvis?" called Claus. "Alvis!" he repeated.

"I'm here!" she shouted back, splashing through the muddy rows of aircraft.

"You ready to go?" asked Claus once she was closer to him.

"Can we look around a little bit longer?"

Claus nodded. "Sure," he said.

Alvis smiled brightly and grabbed Claus by the hand and tugged him after her.

Claus stumbled off after her relieved that she was starting to act like her usual self. He hoped it would stay that way.

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Tatiana closed the door behind Lavi as she left. She was thankful Lavi hadn't charged them much for all the time she had spent jacking with their vanship. Tatiana sighed and walked into the kitchen, where Alistia was sitting.

"In all the years I've known you," she said, "I've never known you to do something so stupid and selfish."

Alistia wouldn't meet her stare. "I'm sorry, Tatiana," she said meekly. "I wasn't really thinking."

"Of course you were!" countered Tatiana. "If you hadn't been thinking then you wouldn't have pulled this stunt."

Alistia shrunk a little into her chair. "I'm sorry." She looked away but then managed to hold Tatiana's eyes. "I really am, but I don't know what more to say."

Tatiana closed her eyes for a few moments in a long blink and then sucked in a sharp breath. "Alright," she said. "You need to forget about Claus. I don't know how he and Lavi are making it but you have no right to mess with that."

"That's easy for you to say, you have Ethan."

"It may be easy for me to say but that doesn't mean it isn't true. You have to try and find someone else."

Alistia looked hurt, but didn't reply.

Tatiana sighed and sat down next to her friend. "Alistia, when did you get like this? I know you've had a thing for him, off and on, for a while, but you always seemed to accept circumstances as they were."

"They weren't always together like this," replied Alistia. "When we knew them on the ship they were just a flight crew- friends, not lovers."

"They still aren't lovers," interrupted Tatiana, "But I know what you mean."

"Maybe if I would have said something sooner," continued Alistia.

Tatiana shook her head. "It doesn't matter, you can't go back and change that and you aren't doing yourself any favors by thinking like that."

"I should have said something when I first started thinking about him… like that- you know?"

"I'm not going to play this game, Alistia," said Tatiana, rising to leave.

Alistia was silent.

"Please, don't do this to yourself."

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Lavi finished cleaning her tools and put them away carefully. Claus had a tendency to leave smaller tools lying around and she always would end up tidying up behind him at some point. She saw Moran's fuel tank sitting on a work bench. She walked over and inspected it. Claus was probably letting it sit a while before doing a water test.

She had noticed that the vanship was gone as soon as she opened the workshop door. She had no idea where Claus had gone and didn't see a note. She figured he would be back soon enough, especially with Alvis as a navi.

Lavi sat down on the bench next to the fuel tank and put her head in her arms. She had spent several hours with Tatiana and Alistia and was kind of tired. Luckily Alistia had been able to finally find their flight manual letting her set their SCE properly. Afterwards it had just been a matter of buttoning up the engine again and giving everything else a once-over.

She picked her head up out of her arms and stood up in front of the tank. She grabbed it and immediately noticed how light it was. All of the welds were long since cool so she decided to go ahead and fill it with water to see if it leaked.

After a minute of filling the tank Lavi immediately noticed two small trickles of water seeping from the side joint. She went ahead and finished filling the tank but didn't catch any more. She drained it and then dried it thoroughly before lugging it to the back of the shop and retrieving Claus' mig welder from the back store room. At least Claus was good enough to always put his larger tools away. She grabbed a pair of tinted goggles and quickly patched the two leaks. After which she used a small grinder to smooth down the jagged weld edges. She never got to be much of an artist as far as welding went but she was proficient enough to be of use. She smiled at her handy work and put the tools away again and waited for the metal to cool.

Time passed and eventually she heard the drone of a vanship approaching. She walked outside the shop and looked around, figuring (hoping) that it was Claus coming back.

Coming in at a decent clip, the vanship rolled once and then began to decelerate as it approached the house. Lavi could already tell that it was theirs

It continued to slow and eventually stopped, hovering in front of their workshop. Claus hopped down and waved at her as he towed it into the building.

She ran up to him and hugged him from the side. "I missed you," she said as the vanship dropped loudly to the ground. Claus turned and wrapped an arm around her. "I wasn't gone all that long," he said smiling.

Lavi smiled back. "I still missed you."

Claus leaned down a little and kissed her quickly on the mouth.

"Claus!" called Alvis from the navi seat. "Do you need help getting this thing down?" She pointed at the large oil pump lashed to the vanship's fuselage and resting on one of the stubby wings.

"Lavi will help me," he replied.

"What the heck is that for?" asked Lavi, noticing the mechanism.

"Work order," he replied. "I'm going to convert it to fit an older vanship."

Lavi peered over at the pump and blinked. "It looks like ours," she said.

Claus nodded. "It's exactly like ours. I have to cut off the reservoir and reposition it so it will fit a Barnet-Vought D99."

She shrugged. "Alright, let's get it down then."

Claus loosened the belts that held the pump securely to the vanship and coiled them up after unwrapping them from the fuselage.

Lavi waited on the ground while Claus sat down next to the pump and hefted it over the side. She grabbed one end and waited for Claus to ease himself off of the vanship wing, still holding tightly to his end. The two of them carried it over to a nearby bench and set it down with a thump.

Claus looked around and noticed his fuel tank sitting in the back. "Did you move that?" he asked.

Lavi nodded. "I already water tested it, you had two leaks. I welded them but haven't tested it again."

"Oh? Thanks Lavi."

She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "You're welcome," she said..

"Alvis, could you grab the tank and fill it with water for me?" said Claus.

"Sure." Alvis walked over and grabbed the tank and carried it over to the side of the shop and ran a hose into it.

Claus started digging through his catalogs and pulled out the one that had the D99's pump specs in it. Pulling out a pencil and some graph paper he sat down and started sketching out what he wanted to do.

"No leaks!" called Alvis after a few minutes.

"That's good," he replied. "Good welding," he said to Lavi, who was sitting next to him with her hand on his back.

"Thanks," she said, leaning her head against him.

Claus continued to work.

After a while Lavi stood up. "I'm going in to make lunch," she said and leaned over to hug Claus from behind while he sat at his workbench.

"Alright," replied Claus. "Just call us when it's ready."

"I'll just bring it out here," said Lavi. "It's nice out." With that she turned and went inside.

Alvis came over and sat down next to Claus. "What can I do?" she asked.

"Nothing yet," he replied. "Let me finish writing down these dimensions."

She sat quietly next to Claus and eventually leaned over and rested her head against his shoulder. He stopped drawing for a moment and ran his hand through her hair and smiled down at her before resuming his work.

Claus was still sketching when Lavi came out with some steamed meats and vegetables. He took a few humongous bites and sat his plate aside before wandering off to the side of the shop to look over his metal inventory.

"Don't take such huge bites," scolded Lavi when he came back to finish his lunch.

Claus chuckled. "But it's really good," he said.

"So eat it slower and enjoy it."

Claus quickly wolfed down the remainder of his lunch while Lavi gave him an exasperated glare. He grabbed a measuring tape from a workbench and went back to his stacks of metal.

"Hey, Alvis?" he called. "Can you grab my drawing off the bench and bring it here?"

Alvis set her food aside and grabbed the plans Claus wanted and brought them to him.

He took the drawings and examined them for a minute, after which he rolled them up and tucked them under his arm. After writing some figures down on his forearm he walked back to the rack of metal and began measuring the steel lengths with the tape measure he had grabbed, glancing down at his arm every time he marked off a new length of steel.

"Once I get this steel cut," he said, a purple inked marker clenched between his teeth, "I'm going to need you to cut some rubber tubing for me as well as some steel pipe and then help Lavi cut the reservoir off of the pump."

"Okay," she replied.

"Meanwhile I'll start making the new reservoir. Hopefully I can get it all put together by tomorrow."

Lavi came up next to Claus. "Did I hear you mention me?" she asked.

Claus nodded. "Think you and Alvis can cut off the oil tank?"

"Sure thing," she replied, turning back to get her leather work garb. "Go grab your eye protection Alvis," she said.

"Would you get me some goggles too?" asked Claus.

Alvis turned and skipped back to the front of the shop and grabbed two pairs of goggles and Claus' polarized welding mask, figuring he would need it as well."

"Good thinking," said Claus when she handed him his mask and goggles.

She smiled sweetly back at him.

Time passed in the shop in spurts. Sometimes it would feel slow, and others it would blink by without being noticed at all.

Alvis sat on a bench with the large pump in front of her, torch in hand, carefully guiding the bladed flame.

"You're doing great," said Lavi, next to her.

Alvis didn't reply- she was still focused on her work. She had been working with Claus and Lavi in the shop for a while now, carefully measuring and cutting metal while Claus was welding and shaping the pieces that he needed.

She killed the torch and put it down on the bench beside her. Pulling her goggles down around her neck she wiped her sleeve across her sweaty forehead and looked over to where Claus was working. He looked up at her and gave her a thumb's up. She grinned back, wishing he was working over by her. She shook her head and re-focused.

The day bore on and slipped quickly into the fading light.

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The imperial observatory was unusually empty for a night this clear, only a handful of scientists and their aides had bothered to stay in for the night's shift. The moon had long since dipped under the horizon and the sky was laid open for all to see.

Assistant Director Murray sat at the control of the main 4.2 meter telescope, the interior glow from the red lights were making his star charts a little difficult to read. His assistant was sitting lower in the housing dome at the controls of the smaller 40cm refraction telescope. Murray's current interest was a bizarre wobbling star about 67 degrees above the horizon. It wasn't until the observatory had installed the new 4.2 meter telescope that he had been able to notice the very fine movements of several stars. In the several weeks since the installation of the array he had noticed that more than 40 of their commonly watched stars possessed this wobble.

"Assistant Director?"

"What is it Aine?" replied Murray, not bothering to look back at his assistant.

"I found something strange at right ascension zero hours, forty minutes, declination plus 41 degrees zero minutes."

"It's just a fairly interesting spiral galaxy" replied the assistant director. He had seen that particular spiral dozens of times- it was one of the brightest in the sky.

"No, I'm not talking about the Pegasus cluster, sir. Come see for your self," replied the younger, dark haired man.

The assistant director stood up and hobbled down the cold concrete steps, his cane tapping ever other one. At the bottom he leaned on the railing waiting for his assistant to vacate the viewing chair.

Easing into the chair he peered into the eyepiece and began scrutinizing the image he saw in the lens. "Well?" he said after a minute, "What am I looking for?"

"Look just below the brightest cluster and to the right about 20 degrees. You'll see it."

Murray looked harder and tried to pinpoint where Aine was talking about. After adjusting the telescopes position he finally saw it: an object appeared to be floating above the planet!

The assistant director immediately jumped up, the pins in his knee forgotten, and scrambled up the stairs to realign the larger mirror array. "Send a message to the Naval Central Command," he shouted over the grind of the large alignment gears. "They have jurisdiction over Anatoure's skies. They will want to know about this. Next contact the smaller observatory in Norkia and have them confirm what we are seeing." The massive telescope was grinding around on its turnstile mount as Murray kept shouting. "We will want to get our best range finders in here and figure out how big this thing is."

While Murray was realigning the larger array Aine ran back to the main office to use the landline to contact the main routing operators. He knew it could take hours to get a communiqué out to Norkia. He radioed the local dispatch and gave them a short message to relay to the smaller observatory. The Imperial observatory didn't have the largest budget in the world but he could certainly afford (and explain) a vanship dispatch to the southern observatory.

The dispatch read:

PRIORITY- Immediate, OA

RA : 00h 40.0 / Dec. 41 degrees 00 minutes – LOCAL – NOT Pegasus.

Confirm object above planet

Requesting Naval range finders.

Next Aine called the Imperial Navy NorthCom and asked to be connected to the CentCom office. He was patched through to a CentCom operator and asked to speak to the Director of Fleet Intelligence, Vice Admiral Alusad. The Vice Admiral wasn't in of course, but a gruff voice picked up anyways.

"Vice Admiral Alusad's offrice, the Admiral is not in right now, this is Major Reisman."

Aine sat in the Directors chair for a second suddenly wondering just what he was going to say. The thought of waking the Intelligence Director at this time of night for some completely unconfirmed report of an _object_ orbiting the planet suddenly struck him as being lucrative.

"Hello?" repeated the major.

"Sir!" Aine yelped. "Sir, I am the assistant to the Assistant Director at the Imperial Observatory. The Assistant Director has instructed me to inform the Navy that we are observing an unidentified object that appears to be orbiting the planet. I've already sent a dispatch to the Norkia Observatory to the south to verify what we are seeing." Aine stopped to suck in air and quietly controlled his inhalation.

"I see," replied the Major, not quite understanding the implications.

"Sir, with respect, we have _never_ recorded anything orbiting the planet other than the moon, ever. We have no idea what this object is, how big it is or even how it got there." Aine was now standing in front of the Assistant Director's desk, pacing the length of the heavy rich redwood desk.

Major Reisman leaned back in his chair and ran a hand across the very short silvery hair on the back of his head. "I believe I'm starting to get the picture here. I'll put a call in to the Vice Admiral at daybreak."

Just as Major Reisman was about to hang up Aine cut in again, "Sir, I almost forgot. We need naval range finders to be dispatched to our observatory and the Norkia installation."

"I'll see that you get the men you need. What did you say your name was, son?"

"Aine, sir, Aine Sinders."

"Very well Mr. Sinders, you will be hearing from us shortly regarding the range finders. Good bye."

Aine hung up the phone and sat back into the chair, leaning forward he eased his chin into his palm in thought. This was all certainly very interesting but he couldn't help but feel that maybe they were all overreacting just a little.

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Blue tinted night yawned across the Imperial Capital. Kirov sat at his desk twirling a letter opener around passively. He tried to let himself be nervous. He wanted the butterflies, the fear- the apprehension. But none of that came. He sighed. He didn't like this. He wanted something to work with, something he could get used to. He could have just taken his fear, looked at it, and accepted it. But instead he knew that he would have to proceed unprepared.

Kirov put the letter opener aside and stood up. He took a few moments to look out his window at the city lights shining harshly against the deepening evening. He rubbed his hands together. Time to go.

He quickly left his study and walked briskly through the hall and down a flight of stairs and out the back door, making sure no one saw him.

Earlier in the day he had made a point of being caught alone by one of the girls that helped service the house- the flirtatious one- Nikita. She had been helping to take care of the house since before Kirov and his family had moved in. She had taken a liking to him almost immediately. Of course Kirov was always otherwise preoccupied and never let it go anywhere at all. Today though, he had allowed her to carry on a bit longer than normal and ended up stumbling into an awkward kiss. Nikita had blushed mildly but her smile was coy and she leaned up to snag another. Kirov stopped her with a finger tip to her lips, saying "Later. Tonight perhaps."

She had nodded eagerly, saying she would wait for him by the eastern fence where the larger field jutted off from the house.

So Kirov waited in the failing light. Eventually he began to doubt that the girl would even show. He worried that she had somehow discovered what he intended. No, that was nonsense. He wasn't even entirely sure what his intentions were.

He turned and faced away from the buildings and stared out across the field. He noticed an old rock wall on the far side that had several breaches. That would be perfect. He suddenly felt a pressure against his back and arms around his waist.

"Sorry I'm late," said Nikita.

Kirov turned around and smiled down at the younger girl. She had taken the time to paint herself up a little. Her dark auburn hair had delicate streaks of red, and she had a touch of blush on her cheeks to accentuate the soft color of her skin that contrasted nicely with the darker freckles that peppered her face, arms, and shoulders. She wore a lower cut version of her house dress that really showed off her generous bust.

"Gorgeous," said Kirov, before he even realized it.

Nikita blushed and smiled. She leaned up and briefly touched her lips to Kirov's.

He responded but quickly pulled away. "This way," he said, leading her by the hand across the field towards the broken rock wall.

By now evening had collapsed into night. Nikita pulled away from Kirov and was now leading him by the hand instead. She tramped carefully through the tall grass and wild flowers. While she had taken the time to doll herself up, she still wore boots under her dress. She had hoped Kirov would be up for a little hike away from the house. Luckily he seemed to have had the same idea. She smiled to herself.

Once they passed the rock wall she felt Kirov let go of her hand briefly before grasping it again. It felt like he had changed hands. She gave a quick glance backwards at him and caught his eye. He looked hungry almost. Maybe a little bit wild too. That was fine by her. Her own appetites were quite feral too. She couldn't wait to find a nice soft place for a romp in the woods. Her smile was broadening into a huge grin now.

Nikita slowed her pace as they followed the wall. She turned around again to give Kirov another intensely coy smile but didn't see him. He still had her hand but was beside her now. She felt an intense pain in her throat and suddenly inhaled a lungful of fluid. She heaved forward and blood poured out of her mouth and spurted out of her neck.

Kirov had intended for it to be quicker. He didn't want her to be able to scream either. He had considered shooting Nikita in the back of the head with his sidearm but thought better of it. The noise would only attract people. So instead he drew a large knife he had taken with him and decided to stab the girl in the throat instead.

But instead of smoothly sliding in, Kirov had to viciously fight layers of flesh and sinewy tissue. The blade had veered horribly and Nikita pitched forward into the ground and rolled onto her back to stare up at him.

He stood over her stricken form, bloodied knife in hand and looked down at her. She struggled to speak but no words came from her lips. Instead thick blood and black ichor seeped past her clenched teeth and trickled down the side of her mouth. Tears pooled in the corner of her eyes and leaked down the side of her face.

Kirov had not intended for her to realize what had happened. He didn't want the girl to suffer. That wasn't the point of this. So he carefully sat down beside her and took her hand in his and squeezed delicately. She squeezed it back, but the pressure was only barely perceptible.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly to her. "You weren't supposed to know. You were supposed to die quickly. I know you must think me utterly cruel but I swear to you that there is a purpose in your death. I'll wait here until you are gone. I won't let you die alone."

More tears welled up in the girl's eyes and she shook her head slowly.

Kirov sat beside her until her final thrashing fight with death. He waited a few minutes longer before dragging her body back to the rock wall and piling stone after stone upon her lifeless form. He felt a pang of guilt that the girl wouldn't receive a proper burial, and that the weight of the stones would mangle her body but it couldn't be helped. He then turned to walk back to the house. He lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply as he walked back across the field, back towards his home, back towards his father.

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Claus had been having the same dream a few nights a week for the last two months. In it he always saw the fight between him and the gang leader. He saw himself punch the other man in the throat and then watched him fall to the ground where he remained until the earth opened up and swallowed him. Then Claus would turn to leave that dark alley but he always tripped. He would fall and land hard on the ground and turn around to see what had tripped him. It was always the head of the gang leader- just the head. No body, no blood.

Claus knew he had killed him the moment his fist had connected with the man's throat. He had felt the other man's windpipe collapse under the force of his blow. It had made a sickening crunching sound.

He woke slowly from the fog of sleep and inhaled a deep drought of breath. He had spent a lot of time thinking about that fight. It was only the second fight he had ever been in at the time. The first one had been when he had first come aboard the Sylvana and gotten the crap beaten out of him by the deck crew.

Claus noticed the warmth of someone else lying next to him. His eyes focused and he saw that Alvis was curled up on the couch with him.

After his dream he was thankful for her warmth. He wrapped an arm around her body and pulled her closer to him and closed his eyes. He noticed how much he liked the sound of her delicate breathing and pulled her even tighter against him.

Something in his mind clicked. He opened his eyes and sat up leaning on one arm and looked down at Alvis' sleeping form. He wrestled mentally with himself for a moment before carefully dislodged himself from her grasp and easing himself over her and off of the couch. He gently picked her up and carried her quietly to her room and laid her down in her own bed.

Claus kissed the sleeping girl carefully on the corner of her mouth, just barely catching her lips with his own. He stood up and sighed. He just wasn't sure where he was going all of a sudden.

He stepped out into the hall and closed her door softly behind him. To his left Lavi's door open and she appeared in the doorway wearing a nightshirt and cotton shorts. She smiled sleepily at him and walked up to him. She stopped and pressed herself gently against him.

"What are you doing up?" she asked.

Claus shook his head, not sure what he wanted to say. He put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. She always seemed softer at night, warmer and seemed to have a different kind of beauty entirely.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" he asked into her ear while he pulled her tighter against him.

Lavi kissed his shoulder where it joined his neck. "I just got up to pee," she said. "You should go back to sleep."

Claus sighed inwardly before catching her in fumbling, sleepy kiss and let her pass by him so she could get into the bathroom. The door clicked behind her.

Claus put his head in his hands and rubbed his face with his palms trying to push his thoughts away. He turned to go back to the couch but paused in front of Alvis' door. No, he thought. That wasn't the answer either. Sometimes there were no right answers. He padded back to their den and plopped down onto the couch and let sleep claim him.


	3. Chapter 3

WARNING: if you are not comfortable reading LEMON fanfiction do not continue. you have been warned.

AN: and again it takes me quite some time to get another chapter out. Again I apologize, but a few factors in my personal life have made me hard pressed for writing time.

AN: this is the first time i am submitting WITHOUT employing the use of a beta reader (i don't want to use beta readers supplied by and have always relied on friends, but these friends are becoming increasingly busy). this chapter may be subjected to alterations in the future (hopefully nothing too severe).

**Plane in The Sunset part III**

by: Godshatter

_Bless the make and his water_

_Bless his coming and his going_

_May his passing cleanse the world_

_And may he keep the world for his people_

-Prayer of Shai'Halud (Dune)

--

Claus yawned and flopped down hard onto the couch. The sun was starting to set and he sat quietly marveling at the spray of orange and red that washed out the horizon. Lavi came in and sat down beside him and leaned heavily into his side. He put an arm around her touched their heads together.

"I never expected it would take all day to fix the oil pump," said Lavi tiredly.

"If I'd made it right the first time it wouldn't have," growled Claus.

"It's not your fault Claus." Even to Lavi her assurance sounded weak.

Claus did his best to sink further into the couch. He had had to make an extra trip back home to pick up his welder and cutting torch to finally get Mr. Kusagi's oil pump to fit. It had taken him several hours of readjusting until he realized that he had based his design on an even older variant of the D99. He had sworn darkly to himself for several minutes as he cut and welded the pump and tank into place.

He still had yet to deliver and install Moran's fuel tank. Luckily it was getting cooler and he wouldn't he be needing it just yet. Another day wouldn't hurt anything.

"I'm kind of tired," said Lavi drowsily. "Do u mind if we eat a little bit later?"

Claus shrugged. "I can make dinner if you like."

Lavi smiled sweetly at him. "Alright," she said and kissed him on the shoulder.

Claus leaned over and snagged a kiss from her lips before rising from the couch and lumbering into the kitchen.

Lavi heard water running and ran her hands through her hair. She felt like a mess. She had oil and engine fluid stained to her. "I hope you're washing your hands!" she called.

Claus didn't reply. A moment later she felt cold wet hands cupping her eyes.

"Hey!" she yelped.

Claus laughed and went back into the kitchen.

Lavi grinned coyly at him as he left the room then sprawled out on the couch. She yawned again.

--

"Dad, the solution is getting really erratic."

Emit cursed under his breath. Night was falling. He knew he shouldn't have taken this last minute job. They were still an hour out from the Norkia observatory.

"She'll hold together," he said calmly into his mic.

"I hope so, dad."

"I'm gonna use what speed we can, tell me if the solution thins or starts to catalyze with the air."

"Will do." Henna felt their acceleration creep up and prayed her dad wouldn't burn them out. The evening air was cold and bit fiercely at her.

--

Director Bylar was busy mapping out the night's sky watching activities with the assistant director and one of the telescope operators. Around him was the steady clockwork rhythm of the observatory machines.

"Mr. Director?" asked a man standing in the doorway- he was wearing a heavy coat along with a flightcap and goggles.

"Yes?" replied Bylar, turning to face the pilot, tilting his head down to look over his bifocal glasses.

He was holding a silver dispatch tube and looked very tired. The pilot handed him the message tube and a receipt to sign. The director took them both, asking, "What is this about?" as he signed the receipt.

"Dunno," replied the pilot with a half shrug. "I'm just the messenger."

Bylar recognized the pilot's flight crest as belonging to the Anatoure Vanship Consortium. "You flew from the imperial city, didn't you?"

"That's right, I did."

"Did you have any stopovers?"

"No, but we did fuel at an aerial dock." Haggard, the pilot took his receipt and trudged back to the door.

The director clearly saw how fatigued the man was; his gray eyes were bloodshot and had dark puffy circles under them. "Can I offer you a place to sleep here for the night? You certainly have a long flight back."

The pilot turned back, considering the offer. "Let me ask my navi," he said, running a hand through his shallow beard.

Director Bylar turned to one of his assistants, "Shuri, show the man back to the hangar." The pale redheaded girl standing next to him nodded and followed the pilot back out the door. The director could hear his heavy boots clumping on the wooden floor trailing down the hall in the direction of the vanship hanger.

The observatory complex wasn't large, it consisted of a central dome that operated an old 1.5 meter telescope, a housing building right next to it (in fact they shared a common wall) that contained a small kitchen, a dining room/lounge, and another room with cots and hammocks set up. There was also a small hanger at the head of a small air field that was attached to the building by a hallway.

The director made sure his subordinates understood the night's plan and stepped out of the room and made his way down the hallway towards the hangar. He stopped in front of the heavy green door and pulled it open, turning as he did to glance out the window. The night was chilly up at this altitude but the air was clear. He could clearly see across the naked rock clearing that the observatory was built on and down into the lights of Norkia.

Bylar stepped into the dimly lit hangar and saw the pilot standing by the wing of his vanship, talking to a young girl in the backseat.

"I don't know what the problem is dad, the engine won't turn over at all. I hear the initiator fire and crank but after that nothing, just a slosh of claudia solution. Whatever was messing with the solution earlier finally killed it."

The pilot turned as Bylar was closing the door to the hall behind him, its latch clicked and he walked towards the vanship. "Looks like we will be taking you up on your offer tonight, my vanship needs repairs and I'm too tired to mess with it tonight."

Bylar nodded, "I'm afraid I don't have much more than a cot or hammock and some blankets to offer. There is food in the cabinets as well, help yourself to whatever you like."

"Thank you, Mr. Director," the pilot replied, grasping Bylar's hand in his own and shaking it firmly as he and his daughter walked by. "I'll need to find some tools and a place to work on my vanship tomorrow. This hanger looks a little bare."

Bylar went over to the hanger's opening and grabbed hold of one of the latches, trying to cycle the large metal door closed. The door squealed on its guide rails and slowly inched forward. The vanship pilot jogged over next to Bylar and grabbed hold of one of the handles; shoving the door forward they closed the hanger.

"Thank you," said Bylar.

"Emit," said the pilot. "At least, that's what everyone else calls me." He smiled tiredly and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "This is my daughter, Henna."

"I know of someone who can help you with your vanship tomorrow, but for now, please rest. You've had a long flight and I extend to you whatever resources we have available."

"You are very kind," said Emit. Turning to his daughter he said "Lets go sleep Henna, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow."

Bylar showed Emit and Henna to their room then headed back to the observatory deck, where the assistant director was staring down at the currier's message.

"Unbelievable," said the Assistant Director. "Absolutely unbelievable," he repeated.

"What's so unbelievable?" asked Bylar, closing the observatory's heavy wooden door behind him.

The Assistant Director stood up from the table where the night's team had been previously examining sky charts and walked over to Bylar, thrusting the message into his hand. "Read," he said. "We are already realigning the telescope to look at those coordinates."

Bylar quickly scanned the note once, then reread it a second time to make sure he hadn't misunderstood. "Unbelievable." His words were lost in the whir of machinery as the telescope was muscled around on its massive rotating platform.

Stopping the telescope with a silent wheeze of tension, the Assistant Director locked the array in place with the pull of a lever and walked up to the base of the viewing platform. The main gear housing was used to wheel the large frame of the scope around on its track, but it was far too powerful for the precise adjustments necessary to hone in on a specific target. Sitting down at the telescope the Assistant Director peered up into night sky, occasionally glancing down to the dials beside him. He adjusted the large telescope using a set of three wheels beside him: one for attitude adjustment, one for rotation, and one to adjust the focus of the telescope.

"There it is! I've got it!" The Assistant Director jumped up out of his chair and rushed Bylar over to the telescope. "This doesn't make any sense- it has no inertial drift that we can see."

"Look, right there, there it is!"

Bylar leaned up to the eyepiece of the telescope and stared up into the sky. The object took up just a piece of the scope's field of view. "It looks kind of like a squashed hourglass," he said.

The assistant director nodded, "Did you see the rings around it?"

"Oh?" Bylar looked harder. After a minute his eyes adjusted and he saw the faint glow of several gossamer rings of light encircling the object at its two ends.

"It's a shame we can't get a better look at it, I'm sure the guys up at the Imperial Observatory are having a field day with there new telescope." The director sighed and leaned back into his chair. "Well, what do we do now? I'm sure the other observatory has made all the necessary calls, they just want us to officially corroborate their findings."

The observatory door clanged open and Shuri rushed into the cavernous room. "Mr. Director," she said, "Someone one from the Navy just called, he said we will be receiving two range finders at the request of the Anatoure Observatory."

The assistant director blinked and sat quietly for a moment. Then, standing up he said, "We have a lot to do between now and their arrival. We need to set up some proper living quarters and give the telescope a thorough mechanical diagnostic before they use it. All of our instruments must be as precisely calibrated and fine tuned as possible."

"Also," spoke up the Assistant Direct, "It would probably be a good idea to tell the vanship consortium that we will be sending dispatches to the Imperial installation on very short notice. I'm sure the Navy can supply us with a better alternative but we have to work with what we have here and now."

Bylar nodded in agreement.

"Ill also see about getting some better supplies up here," said Shuri. "Let me know if anyone thinks of anything specific that they might need. I'm hoping that the Navy will tell us beforehand what sort of provisions they will require."

As far as the Director was concerned everyone knew what their job was and would be seeing to it as quickly as possible, his intervention wasn't needed. He turned his attention back to the novelty floating in space, so very high above him. He knew that soon the night sky would grow dim, but there were still a few hours of starlight left and this would probably be the last time he would have control over the telescope for quite a while. He stared up at the dark hourglass figure and sighed. "What are you up there? How did you get there?" The shadowy object slowly spun as it lazily floated above the earth, occasionally a more reflective piece would shine in the moonlight cast from just below the horizon. The moon would be dawning soon. The director sighed again. This new discovery was certainly interesting, but he knew it meant he would be barred from the night sky that he loved so dearly. Of course he had his own telescope at home, but the view it offered was nothing compared to what he considered his god's eye view of the universe that the observatory offered.

Bylar stood up and walked out the side door to the observatory, not quite letting the door close all the way behind him he propped it open with a nearby rock. He stood staring up into the night, on the horizon he could already see dim flashes of lightning. A curtain of clouds would be pulled across the night's stage of light, but he would enjoy the show while it lasted.

--

Moran was busy changing out the transmission fluid on his tractor. The mornings were starting to warm already and he was trying to get it in perfect working order for after the cold season. He heard the door slam and looked out from underneath the large machine and saw Dunya walk across their gravel drive to the open spot where the tractor was.

"Moran?" she called.

"Down here, babe," he said.

Dunya gently sat down on the gravel and leaned back against her arms and peered under the tractor at him. "How's it going?" she asked.

"Almost done draining the old fluid."

She smiled at him. "Claus called," she said. "He is bringing you your new fuel tank. He wanted to know if he could use your tractor to haul in a busted vanship from the observatory."

"Yeah, sure, I just need to get the engine buttoned up after I put in the new fluid," replied Moran, easing himself out from under his tractor to sit next to his wife.

Dunya leaned over and took his hands.

"I'm pretty greasy," said Moran.

"I don't care," she replied sweetly.

Moran grinned and kissed her before standing and helping her up as well.

--

Lavi had been surprised to get a call from the observatory that morning. Claus had been asleep when the phone rang. She was already up and about. She could hear him curse mildly as he rose from sleep. She had giggled to herself as she ran to the kitchen to catch the phone.

The girl on the other line had said her name was Shuri and that there was a vanship crew with a broken ship stuck with them at the observatory. Lavi had agreed to bring Claus and help them out. After hanging up the phone she had started wondering how to get the ship down to their workshop.

So Claus suggested they bring it in using Moran's tractor.

So here they were flying to Moran's.

The engine thrummed calmly in her ears while the rest of the vanship vibrated casually around her. She had really started to miss flying.

"I missed flying with you," said Claus into their radio as if he had been reading her mind.

Lavi smiled to herself. "I missed it too," she said.

"Alvis is working hard and learning a lot, but you're my navi."

Lavi was silent for a minute. She could see Moran's land plot coming up fast. "It really means a lot to hear you say that, Claus."

"Oh?" Claus turned around in his seat and faced back towards her. She smiled brightly at him. He smiled back. "Well I really was starting to miss you," he said again.

Claus turned back around and Lavi waited for him to dump their throttle.

"Airbreak," he said.

She eased back on her break levers and felt the vanship decelerate sharply.

Claus carefully corkscrewed down and landed with a thump. Not is best landing- it jarred Lavi's neck a little.

Once they were out of their seats and firmly on the ground Lavi hurried over to Claus and caught him before he had gone too far from the vanship. She kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Thanks," she said softly. He looked a little confused but grinned back and kissed her playfully on the mouth.

Claus pulled away from her and led her by the hand towards Moran's backdoor. He knocked a few times and Dunya answered after a pause.

"Hi you two," she said cheerfully. "Moran will be down in a second."

A few moments later Moran appeared on their small wooden staircase trying to get his head through his shirt.

Lavi noticed that Dunya's cheeks were a little more rosy than usual and arched an eyebrow.

Dunya saw this and smirked knowingly.

"You two ready?" asked Moran.

"I've got your tank lashed to the vanship," replied Claus. "Let's get it put in and get over to the observatory."

Moran nodded. "Alright, let's get this done." He kissed Dunya on his way out the door and patted her playfully on the behind. She giggled at him as she pushed him out the door.

--

Henna was lying in a makeshift hammock when her father came in and rapped his knuckles against the door.

"The mechanics just got here," he said. "They brought some sort of tractor."

"Oaky," she replied. "Do you need me for anything?"

Emit shook his head. "Nah, I think we can handle it. I thought u might want to come out anyways, not really a lot to do around here during the day."

"Yeah, I am kind of bored," she replied lazily.

She followed her dad into the small hangar building and saw a dark haired man looking over their vanship. He was wearing work pants and heavy boots but had an old looking blue jacket with several strips of metal sewn onto the sleeves with three chevrons piping each arm.

"Henna?"

She turned and saw a young man with shaggy blond hair and dark work overalls. He had a length of steel cable slung over his shoulder.

"Claus? What are you doing here?"

Claus grinned sheepishly. "I'm the mechanic."

She was about to go up to him but another girl stepped up next to him and put her arm around his waist. She thought for a moment trying to remember the girl's name name.

"Hi Lavi," she said after a moment.

"Hey," replied Lavi absently.

Henna smiled at the other girl but she looked away.

Claus looked down at Lavi and then back at Henna and shrugged. She smiled back.

"Let's get these cables hooked up," he said to Lavi. He looked back at Henna. "Moran and I checked over your superstructure. You have enough hardpoints that we can tow you back to my workshop."

"Do you need help with anything?"

Claus untangled himself from Lavi and dumped his cable on the concrete next to the starboard wing. "We can rig it ourselves. You and your dad will have to help us steer it through some of the turns though."

Henna nodded. "Okay."

"It won't take long to rig the cables."

Henna and her father waited off to the side while Moran, Claus, and Lavi busily made their way around the vanship attaching the steel cables to its hardpoints.

Moran gunned his engine and slowly crept the tractor forward. He looked around for Claus to tell him his clearance but found him off to the side. Lavi had herself wrapped around him again and was keeping him otherwise preoccupied. Claus caught his eye and Moran saw him try to shrug. Moran smirked back and made a point of looking away.

Lavi stepped back from Claus and bit gently at her lower lip. She was blushing furiously and looked around like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Claus took her hand and pulled her over to the vanship. Her mouth still tingled just a little bit from their kiss.

Claus called out Moran's clearances and slowly they pulled the larger vanship out of the hangar. He saw Lavi run up beside the tractor and hop on as Moran opened the throttle. The engine roared up and churned down the gravel road. She turned back to him and caught his eye. She smiled shyly back at him. He grinned so wide he face started to ache.

He knew Lavi to be fairly open with their affections but for her to kiss him like that in front of Moran, the observatory staff, and everyone really made him happy. He certainly wasn't embarrassed or shy about his feelings for her but it still felt like they had done something a little out of line and it kind of excited him.

--

Alvis yawned. She had been lying on the couch all morning waiting for Claus and Lavi to get back. She had gotten up late and saw a note on the table saying that they would be back soon. She hazily remembered them saying something about Moran's but she had been half asleep when she overheard them talking outside of her room.

She shivered. It was pretty cool in the house that day. She wandered into her room and put on a long sleeve shirt that dropped down to almost her knees; you couldn't even see her shorts. She chuckled. It might as well have been a dress. Claus was right, she needed to stop making do with his old clothes and get some of her own, though she still thought she looked really cute in Claus' oversized shirt.

She yawned again and rubbed her eyes sleepily. She walked into the kitchen and cut herself a few slices of meat and cheese and poured herself a glass of water. After a few minutes of silence she heard an engine rumbling in the distance. It didn't sound anything like a vanship.

Alvis checked outside and saw that their vanship was still in the workshop. She frowned to herself. Where would they have gone? She swore she heard the vanship leave that morning.

The engine sound kept getting louder so she stepped outside their backdoor and looked around. She saw a tractor heading her way and it looked like Moran was driving. He waved at her. She waved back and started running towards it.

--

Henna sat in her navi's seat while her dad and Claus muscled the vanship around trying to keep it following the tractor. She looked up and saw a young girl with bright blond hair running towards the tractor. She waved at Moran and Lavi as she passed and almost collided with Claus.

"Hey Al," said Claus as the girl hugged him.

"What's with the tractor rig?" she asked.

"Work."

Henna furrowed her brow. Suddenly the girl was bounding along next to her.

"I'm Alvis," she said smiling sweetly at her.

"Henna," replied Henna. "That's my dad, Emit." She pointed forward and Alvis waved at the older gentleman when he turned around at the sound of his name.

"Are you Claus' sister?" asked Henna.

Alvis shook her head, tossing her loosely formed ponytail around.

"Daughter?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

Claus coughed explosively and Alvis blushed.

"C'mon, there is no way he looks old enough to have kids yet," shouted Lavi from her perch on the back of the tractor.

Henna shrugged. "Some guys are older than they look."

Lavi shook her head and turned around. Henna saw her peek back at Claus and Alvis a few moments later and bite delicately at her lower lip.

"You really thought she was mine?" queried Claus, drifting further aft of the vanship as he walked.

Henna shrugged again. "You never know. Besides, she does kind of look like you and like I said, some guys are a lot older than they look."

Claus blinked a few times rapidly and turned to face forward again. Alvis kept pace beside him. Henna laughed quietly.

Soon they pulled up to what looked like a workshop-slash-hangar type building. Henna watched Claus move forward and offer Lavi his hand as she hopped down delicately from the tractor. She hugged him quickly once her feet were firmly on the ground.

"Hi," said a voice below her. She looked down and saw the man who had driven the tractor. "I'm Moran. I don't think I bothered to introduce myself. I apologize" He offered her his hand as she stood up and he helped her climbed down from her cockpit.

"I'm Henna," she replied, dusting an invisible layer of grime from her clothes.

Moran grinned wolfishly and walked over to introduce himself to her father. The two men shook hands and followed Claus into the hangar.

--

Henna sat next to Alvis as the younger girl cut several five centimeter long pieces of tubing.

"How long have you done this kind of work?" she asked.

"Not long," replied Alvis. "Claus has been teaching me how to use the tools in his shop for a couple of years, but I've only been able to do anything on my own for a little while."

Henna looked over her shoulder at where Claus and her father were looking over their engine. Lavi was in the cockpit going over their instrumentation wiring. She had never really bothered to learn the workings of her ship. She had always been happy to just navi for her father. There was always someone else there to fix it.

"Has he taught you how to do anything else?"

Alvis waited a few moments to reply- long enough dump the dozen or so metal rings into a small box next to the band saw's table. "Lavi and him are teaching me how to navi."

When the older girl didn't reply Alvis pulled her clear goggles down around her neck and looked up at her. Henna smiled weakly back at her for a moment but then turned to face back towards the vanship.

Alvis scrunched her eyebrows up for a moment in thought, then grabbed the box of cut metal and brought it over to another table and grabbed a large file and began grinding it over the sharp edges of the tube ends. She watched Henna get up and saunter over to the vanship, where she stopped next to Claus.

Lavi watched Claus and Emit from her seat up in the cockpit. She finished checking all of the instrumentation connections and started carefully stuffing the loose wiring back inside the underside access panel.

"Everything checks out up here," she said, putting her ammeter away.

Claus pulled himself out of the engine compartment and looked up at her with oily features.

Henna quickly fanned her hand through his hair and pulled away. "You're getting pretty grimy," she said amusedly.

Claus shrugged. "It's an engine. What do you expect?"

Her father chuckled while Lavi frowned and looked elsewhere.

The door to the house slammed. Claus turned and saw Moran coming towards them.

"You don't need the tractor anymore today do you?" he called.

Claus thought for a minute. "No," he replied, "I don't think so. Thanks for the lift. You want to just call us even for the tank now?"

"Sure," said Moran. "Worked out pretty well, didn't it?"

Claus nodded.

Moran and Claus shook hands and then Moran was off. It took several minutes for the sounds of the tractor engine to fade completely into the cooling air.

"I'm finished!" called Alvis.

Claus looked back at the younger girl. "Alright," he said. "Why don't you and Lavi start dismounting the centrifuge."

"You really want us to take that apart?" asked Lavi, gingerly dismounting.

"Gotta check everything, we still haven't found the culprit and I'm starting to run out of ideas."

Thirty minutes later Claus had completely pulled the starter system and was slowly examining each part. Next to him Emit had removed the control surfaces from the port side wing and was examining the lift coils underneath.

"I don't know if this is the whole problem, or just one of many, but I definitely found something," called Lavi from where she had the centrifuge disassembled on the floor of the workshop.

Claus walked over to where she was sitting and examined the centrifuge. Some of the inner bulkheads were breached and the motor was clearly damaged- there were traces of slagged motor coils as well as a lot of scorched metal around the housing.

"Looks like it completely seized," said Lavi.

Henna came up and stood next to Claus. "Can you fix it?" she asked.

Claus laughed. "Nope. Nothing I can do for this. Just going to have to find a new one. I'll call the parts merchant after we finish checking everything out. Who knows what else we might find that needs replacing."

An hour later Claus pulled a black cylinder the size of a beer stein out of the engine and set it down on the wing. "I think this is the root of the problem," he said.

"The claudia filter?" queried Lavi in a disbelieving tone.

"That would explain why the centrifuge was burned out. Raw mineral was building up and started catalyzing over time with the oxygenated fuel. It corroded clear through the primary bulkhead and started shorting out the centrifuge motor. The whole thing just ate itself."

"Well at least that's easy to replace," said Emit.

Claus nodded. "Alright, I'm gonna go call the parts merchant. I think if anything else were wrong we would have found it by now."

"Why would the solution thin out if the filter were bad? Wouldn't that mean the solution was too rich?"

Claus turned to Lavi.

"Over time the saturated solution started to degrade your centrifuge. The centrifuge is what keeps the solution mixed properly as it pours into your SCE. When the centrifuge started to fail, the solution started to be re-used and began losing claudia density," she said.

Claus chuckled. "She's the real mechanics. I just make parts."

Henna made a pouting face. "You still know more than I do about vanships."

He shrugged.

Alvis' stomach growled. Her cheeks reddened as everyone turned to her.

"That sounded like an engine," laughed Emit.

"I'm hungry," she replied meekly.

"She takes after Claus," said Lavi, winking.

Alvis tried to hide behind Claus.

--

Lavi and Henna sat in the kitchen waiting for the stew to cook. Alvis, Claus, and Emit were all still in the workshop piecing the engine back together.

"How long have you been with Claus?" asked Henna passively.

"For as long as I can remember." Lavi spooned out a small bit of stew and tasted it.

"How did you meet?"

Lavi sat back down and leaned back in her chair. "Our fathers were a vanship crew a long time ago. His father was a pilot and mine was a navi. Our vanship is…" Lavi paused and looked lost.

"Your vanship?"

A distant look settled into Lavi's eyes. Henna waded through the silence for a few moments before repeating herself.

Lavi's eyes sharpened as she let her chair down to rest on all four legs. "The vanship that we fly belonged to a good friend of our fathers'."

Henna remained politely silent.

"For a long time Claus and I thought that vanship was actually our fathers'."

"I thought you said your fathers were lost in the grand stream."

She nodded. "They were. They were flying with another crew- a man and his fiancé. Only the man returned. I don't remember the words he said to Claus' mother when he came back. All I remember is that soon after that she passed away after that man left us with our vanship. Grief, the doctors had said."

"What about your mother?"

Lavi ignored the question and continued with her own story. "So Claus and I were left with our home and our vanship. Our fathers had already shown us the basics so it was just a matter of picking up where we left off."

She sighed. "Learning to fly didn't pay the bills though. Our parents were considered nobility, but in name only. We were actually not very well off. Their first love was flying. So eventually people came to take possession of the vanship. We sold the house to keep it."

"How old were you?"

Lavi laughed. "Not old enough."

Henna sighed. "I remember when my mother died. I was very young. After we buried her dad wouldn't come out of his room for days at a time. Finally a friend of his came by and asked him if he wanted to go flying in an attempt to pull him out of his funk. After that first flight dad was hooked. He sold a lot of our stuff and bought a clunker of a vanship and had his pilot friend help him restore it. They taught me how to navigate and I've been flying with him ever since.

At first I only did it because it was the only thing that dad would get enthusiastic about. The only time he would talk to me was when we were flying."

"I'm sorry," said Lavi softly.

"It's okay. Flying saved us. Both of us, I'm sure. At first it was really frightful, being so high above the ground. But after a while I got used to it and began to really love it."

"That's exactly what Claus and I went through. We tried so hard in the beginning, but getting the vanship off the ground was a huge ordeal alone."

Henna stood up and walked over to the side counter and looked out the window towards the open workshop. "You two are lucky," she said, "Being able to live together like this."

Lavi arched an eyebrow. "I wouldn't really consider us lucky. We had a really rough time up until just a few years ago."

The other girl shrugged. "Still, it's different from all the other kids. You were on your own with just Claus. I know it must have been hard but would you have traded your life with him for something else?"

Lavi fidgeted. "I don't know." She wasn't really comfortable with the direction their conversation was taking. She was trying not to be confrontational with the girl- she was a client after all.

Henna peered at her intently for a moment before shrugging. "Where's your bathroom?" she asked.

Lavi pointed. "On the left," she said.

Henna was gone for a few minutes before returning. "You have a nice little house," she said brushing her short spiky dark hair out of her eyes.

"Thanks," replied Lavi meekly. "Claus and Moran have been working on it for a few years now."

"Just the two of them?"

"Alvis and I help of course."

"There seems to be a room missing though," said Henna, hopping up to sit on the counter next to the side wall. She leaned to peer out the window again.

Lavi made a screwed up face. "I don't get it," she said.

Henna was silent.

Lavi shrugged mentally and stood up to check the stewpot.

"Oh I get it," mused Henna. "You just sleep with Claus."

Lavi almost dropped the pot onto the floor.

"That's why there were only two bedrooms," continued the other girl. She turned her attention from the window and back to Lavi, who was blushing fiercely. "It's okay," she said. "If I had the chance I'd bed him too." Henna grinned wickedly.

Lavi was so embarrassed that she couldn't find her voice.

At that moment the door opened and Claus and Emit appeared in the kitchen, their boots scuffing loudly on the wooden floor. Henna winked at Claus who then turned to a still red faced Lavi.

"Hey girls," he said.

Alvis quickly appeared behind him and scampered in, closing the door behind her.

"So what to do now?" asked Emit.

"Gonna call the parts merchant and then see to piecing the rest of your engine back together."

"Lunch!" shouted Alvis, hopping over to the stovetop.

Lavi still hadn't said anything yet. She shot Clause a desperate look and turned back to the stewpot. Claus frowned and walked over to her.

"Something wrong?" he murmured into her ear.

Lavi shook her head though she had a look of intensity.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded.

Claus gently kissed the back of her shoulder and touched her hand. She squeezed back momentarily and then let go so she could spoon out the meal.

--

Alvis was curled up on the couch after lunch. She had napped off and on for a half hour after the meal while Claus called the parts merchant and chatted quietly with Emit off in a corner of their den. She watched Lavi hover around them until Henna sprung up from the kitchen.

"Guess we should finish putting your engine back together," said Claus, just a hint of sluggishness in his voice.

Emit nodded. "Right, how long will it take to get the new centrifuge and filter?"

Claus scratched absently at his neck. "Well," he said, "The filter is easy. Those are a dime a dozen. The centrifuge though, those don't go out very often. They aren't really a very high maintenance part either. So it won't be in until tomorrow."

Emit nodded, "Alright."

"You and Henna can sleep here tonight if you like. The charge for the centrifuge order is gonna be somewhat sizeable, so we won't charge you for rooming with us. I have a pallet I can pull out for you." Claus turned to Emit. "And Henna can sleep on the sofa. It's not a bad arrangement. I've slept on both just fine."

"I'm not very picky about where I sleep. I don't think Henna will be either."

Claus cracked his knuckles. "Let's go back outside."

--

Evening was beginning to settle and Claus was sitting in the workshop with Alvis beside him. The younger girl was napping again with her head resting on his shoulder.

Lavi came over and sat down opposite of him. She handed him a screw driver which he used to tighten the fuel valve on his plasma torch.

"There," he said. "Stupid thing kept losing pressure on me."

Lavi leaned across the workbench and took Claus' hands. "I'm still worried about Alvis," she said quietly.

Claus looked down at the sleeping girl and shrugged. "I don't know what you expect me to do."

"I don't know either," said Lavi, looking down at his engine stained hands.

"Where are Henna and her father?"

"Emit is still eating. I assume she is with him."

Claus pulled his hands back and wiped them on his pants. "That was a really amazing dinner you whipped up. I'm not surprised he is still going at it."

Lavi didn't reply.

Next to him Alvis stirred and her head slipped off of where it was braced against his arm. Her eyes popped open.

"If you keep napping you wont want to sleep tonight," warned Claus, as he resumed tinkering with his torch.

Claus turned back to Lavi, who was fixated elsewhere. He let out just a whisper of a sigh.

Alvis looked up at him and caught his eye. She reached over and pulled his sleeve up and gently kissed the side of his arm.

Claus turned his attention back to his tools. Alvis leaned her head against his arm and watched his hands while he worked.

Lavi shook her head and got up to walk back into the house. Claus got up to follow her but Alvis hooked her arm around him. "Wait," she said.

Claus paused for a moment but then gently untangled himself from her. "I'll be back in a minute," he said.

He caught up to Lavi before she could open their back door. He put his hand on her shoulder and carefully turned her around to face him.

"What's bothering you?" he asked.

Lavi smiled at him sadly. "Silly boy," she said. "You really don't ever notice these things do you?"

He remained mute, not sure how to respond. So instead he pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead.

Lavi pressed herself against him and reached up with her mouth to catch him in a slightly deeper kiss. "I'll be alright," she said. "Go back and finish up in the shop. I'll be back out after I clean up inside."

Claus nodded. "Okay."

She smiled sweetly at him and disappeared inside.

Back in the workshop Alvis was waiting on the bench for him.

"If Henna takes the couch and Emit uses our spare mattress where are you going to sleep tonight?" she asked.

Claus sat down next to her. "I'll pull out some blankets and probably sleep here in the shop. I've done it before."

Alvis made a screwed up face. "Why not just sleep with me again?"

Claus hesitated in replying.

"I know what you're thinking," she said preemptively.

Claus was still measuring his response when Alvis scooted closer to him and dropped her head against his shoulder again. She put her hand on his forearm.

"You know," she said quietly. "I wouldn't mind if it happened again."

This time Claus looked down to meet her stare. She was blushing but wore a devilish little grin. Why was she like this? He wondered.

He turned back to his work and was silent. Alvis remained silent as well, though she still hung on to his forearm.

"It's kind of you to offer to keep me warm tonight," he finally said after a while.

"Does that mean you'll let me?"

Claus was beginning to feel lost. "Alright," he said, not meeting her expectant gaze.

Alvis was just about to reply when Lavi appeared beside Claus and sat down on his other side. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. He looked down at Alvis and then back at her.

Lavi ran her hand through the back of Claus' hair and let it rest on the back of his neck.

"You sure?" Alvis heard him ask. Lavi nodded nervously. She watched Claus lean over and kiss the side of her cheek. Lavi smiled warmly at him and stood up to leave.

When she was gone, Alvis asked what she had told Claus.

"She asked me to spend tonight with her," he replied. "I just wish it didn't take her fear of being humiliated."

"Humiliated?" Alvis looked genuinely confused.

Claus nodded. "A while back when Lavi and I stayed a night at an aerial dock we ran into Henna and her father for the first time. The short version is as we were preparing to leave after some repairs, Lavi was on the other side of the vanship and I was trying to close the engine up when Henna managed to steal a kiss from me."

Alvis giggled. "How does one steal a kiss?"

Claus shrugged. "She just kind of leaned up and pressed her lips against mine."

"Did Lavi see it?"

He nodded. "She didn't tell me until later. Before Henna kissed me though, Lavi had been acting differently. She was really adamant about us leaving right then and there and not a minute later. Even at the risk of us running out of fuel with a leak I still hadn't found."

Alvis smirked. "Claus you really are a dolt."

He peered down at her silently. "I admit it," he said. "I'm a fairly simple creature."

The younger girl shook her head and laughed. "Claus, you are anything but simple as far as us girls are concerned."

He shrugged.

"So what is this about her being humiliated?"

Claus shrugged again. "I think she just wants to stick it to Henna that we sleep together. I don't know why. I don't think she is trying to hurt the girl. Henna is a flirt, nothing more."

"Just try and keep it quiet, the rest of us will be wanting to sleep."

Claus laughed. "I doubt that will be a problem," he said, looking back at the house.

Alvis mentally flinched. "I'm sorry," she said. "It wasn't supposed to be mean."

He put his tools aside and wiped his hand on his pants. "I know," he said. "You're always sweet to me."

"It's only because you're so affectionate," she replied softly. "I feel safe showing you how much I love you."

Claus remained silent.

Alvis leaned her head against his shoulder again.

"I'm sure Lavi thinks the same thing," she continued. "She is just nervous about other things I bet. It's not because you're not doing something."

"Thanks," said Claus.

"Will you be with me tomorrow night then?"

"We'll see." Claus was hoping that tonight would lead to a new habit for Lavi and himself.

Alvis pouted.

Claus looked down at her with a measured gaze.

She flinched.

"Lavi is worried about you," he said, staring as though he were trying to look through her. "And honestly," he said, "I'm a little worried too."

Alvis' brows furrowed in thought. "Why?" she queried,

Claus' blue eyes seemed to refocus on her. "Because I know that I can't be with both of you. I'm not something that's going to be shared."

The younger girl looked away.

"When you tell me that you love me, I know what you're really saying. And I know that it's different from what I say to you, when I tell you that I love you."

Alvis continued to avoid his eyes.

Claus put his palm on the back of her neck and let his fingers spread out through her hair. "I'm also worried about myself and Lavi," he said. "I feel that recently I'm pulled in a couple of different directions at once. She knows this, there's no way she hasn't noticed it. She's worried that you are making an already difficult situation even more obfuscated."

"You're saying I'm making things worse?" She looked up and gave him a terribly pained look.

Claus bit hard at his lip, thinking of what he should say. "I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong. Just not helping. More importantly though, I'm really, really worried that I'm going to hurt you."

"You're already hurting me," replied Alvis in a strained tone.

Claus shifted so he could sit straddling the bench with her in front of him. He didn't know what to say. He could see that he really was hurting her, as much as he didn't want to. He desperately didn't want to hurt her, not ever. He sighed.

"How am I… not making things better?" she asked, throwing Claus' own word play back at him.

"C'mon," he said, "You can't expect me to believe you have no idea what's going on."

Alvis smiled coyly. "You're right," she said. "I know. But you saying so makes me think I'm having some kind of an effect on you."

"You are," said Claus without thinking.

His words startled her. She hadn't really expected him to answer. She was suddenly very happy to hear she held some sway over him.

"You're so different from Lavi," he continued. "Lavi is strong willed- as are you, but you never seem to be guarded. Lavi can be slow to lower her guard, even when it comes to me. You on the other hand are the exact opposite, you will charge right in not caring about the consequences. Where Lavi will sit and think something through, you act first and figure out the details later."

"Do you like that part of me?" she asked, almost in a whisper.

Claus nodded. "Yes, I wish some of it would rub off on Lavi. It makes it very easy to be drawn to you, because you don't tease, you lay it out for everyone to know- this is who you are, and how you are- there is no game."

"Does Lavi play head games?"

"No," laughed Claus, "She isn't a schemer, she just isn't one to show all her cards at once."

Claus heard the house door slam and looked to see Lavi walking over to them.

"Ready to sleep?" she asked standing over Alvis and Claus.

"Yeah," said Claus. He looked out past their home and watched the deepening night drift out over the Norkia crater. "I wonder how cold it's going to be."

Lavi shrugged. She took him by the hand and tugged at him gently.

--

Claus lay in their bed waiting for Lavi to finish in the bathroom. He was fighting to stay awake, to wait for her. A few more minutes passed and he heard the door open as she stepped into the room. She smiled at him and started to undress in the darkened room.

Lavi felt herself blushing as she shed her clothes and stood in front of Claus in just her underwear. She pulled a nightshirt out from her drawers and put it on while quickly undoing her bra and pulling it out from under her shirt. She tossed it on the side of her nightstand and climbed under the covers.

"You beat me," she said.

Claus nodded sleepily. "So I did," he said drawing his arm around her and pulling her close to him. He eased his head down next to hers and breathed in her scent. Just now she smelled like vanilla.

He kissed at her shoulder and took her hand so that he could pull it up to his mouth and kiss her fingers.

"You're beautiful," he said to her quietly. In the darkened room her body seemed particularly languid against the shadowy moonlight.

She smiled at him blearily and leaned over to kiss him deeply- fiercely. Her tongue swirled around his while she hugged herself tightly against his body. When she pulled away she put her hand against his forehead and brushed casually at his bangs.

"I love you," she said, kissing again at his mouth, and then at his neck.

Claus could feel the warmth from her soft kisses spreading along his neck. She stopped for a moment before nuzzling the side of his head and breathing hotly into his ear.

"Who are you and what have you done with my Lavi?" asked Claus playfully.

Lavi didn't reply, instead she kissed him again. And again, and again, all over his chest and across his shoulders. She wasn't sure just yet what she wanted so instead she tried to show Claus that she was ready for- something.

She felt him slip his palm across her stomach and spread his fingers over her skin. They were warm and felt like they tingled with energy as they pressed against her.

Lavi breathed shallowly as she felt Claus' palm start to slide about her midsection. She rolled on her back and pulled him against her side.

Claus winced. "Still kinda sore," he said, rubbing his bandaged side.

"You'll live," teased Lavi, pressing his hand back against her abdomen.

Claus shook his head and laughed. "Silly girl," he said, leaning over so he could pull her shirt down and kiss her shoulder while he continued to move his hand about her midsection. Slowly he fanned his fingers out and slid his hand up to cup her breast. Her nipples were already erect and he thumbed them gently.

Lavi sucked in sharply and slid her hand down to Claus' shoulder and then back to his head so she could pull him into another furious kiss.

"Your hands are warm," she said quietly to him.

Claus continued to gently massage her breast while he breathed heavily against the side of her head. "You're warm too," he said.

Lavi smiled shyly. "Tell me you love me, Claus."

"I love you."

"You still make me blush sometimes when you tell me I'm beautiful." Lavi kissed his cheek and then kissed up the side of his face and started kissing at his ear. He shuddered ever so slightly. Lavi smiled at herself. Maybe she could keep up with him.

Minutes passed while the two were pressed closely together. Lavi's breathing was deep in Claus' ear while his hands continued their journey about her torso. Slowly he reached down and started pulling her shirt up her body. Lavi eased up from the bed and allowed him to pull her shirt off of her completely.

Claus had of course seen Lavi naked before, but the previous circumstance had been anything but titillating. So he took a few moments to just marvel at her near nakedness. He sat up and scooted himself down so he could kiss her stomach and her abdominals and the sides of her body. He was completely enamored by the shape of her body. She had such a beautiful figure and her skin almost looked like it was glowing. Her breast were small but had a full round shape to them and her nipples were two cute medium sized dots.

He worked his head further up her abdomen and gently kissed her breast before easing his mouth around her nipple and playing at it with his tongue.

Lavi was lying very still through this, trying hard to control her breathing. Claus noticed this and looked up at her. "You shouldn't be afraid of responding," he said. "There isn't anything you'll do wrong. Just let your body do what it will."

She nodded and sighed deeply. She took his other hand and intertwined their fingers before squeezing hard and then unclasping them. It's not that she was afraid of responding she just didn't know how.

"I don't really know what to do," she whispered.

Claus stopped what he was doing so he could gently kiss her on the mouth. "I don't really know what I'm doing either," he said.

"But you're doing great," she said. She had all but wanted to shout it. "Keep doing what you were doing. Just being touched by you feels good Claus. It always has."

He nodded and placed a hand firmly on her lower stomach and resumed.

Lavi's arousal was growing and she started moving her legs around. She reached down and pushed Claus free hand down between them. She still had her panties on and he gently applied pressure to the delicate bulge at the joining of her legs. He massaged his fingers back and forth across her sex and started playing his hand up and down her leg only stopping briefly every few passes to resume massaging her between her legs.

"What do you want me to do for you?" she asked.

"Nothing right now," said Claus- he had stopped playing with her breast and had sat up so he could slide her underwear off of her. Lavi arched her body up and let him remove them.

He traced his mouth up and down the length of her thighs, breathing in her musky scent. Her legs were strong and wonderfully shaped. He brushed the side of her inner thighs with his nose and breathed coolly against her skin.

Claus felt Lavi's fingers sift carefully through his hair. He bit playfully at her inner thigh and started kissing around her dark red bush. He pushed her legs back and found her lips open and waiting. He pressed his mouth against them. She was hot and slick with arousal and he flicked his tongue out against her inner lips and explored.

He felt her tugging at his head.

"Stay up here with me," she said. "I'm still not ready for everything yet."

Claus sat up again and eased himself down next to her. Lavi took his hand and carefully slid it back down between her thighs. She opened her legs up and pressed his fingers against her sex.

He could feel her warmth flowing out across his fingers as he moved them back and forth across her opening. At first they slid easily but soon they were completely covered in her arousal as he eased a finger up inside of her.

Lavi started to moan quietly in his ear and played her own hands across his body.

Claus' fingers massaged her lips and his hand massaged her thighs. The tip of his fingers found her clit and pressed in and around. After a few minutes Lavi's breathing became more sporadic and her body language became more intense.

"There Claus, keep your finger there," she pressed his whole hand against her sex and slid his finger in circles around her clit.

She was so wet that he had trouble keeping his finger pressed against her clit.

"You don't have to keep it there the whole time," she said huskily. She reached down and pressed one of his fingers part ways into her slit and rubbed it up and down. If she wasn't so turned on she would have been horribly embarrassed at the mess she was probably making.

Lavi fumbled around and finally got her hand under Claus' boxers and found his engorged penis. She pulled at his underwear and he stopped what he was doing so he could discard them. She tugged gingerly at his shaft and did her best to manipulate it in her hands.

"What should I do?" she asked.

"Whatever you want," he replied, rolling her against him so he could kiss her fiercely.

"But I don't know what that is," she whispered, still carefully stroking his member.

"Just do that," he said.

Lavi was lost in her arousal. His touch gave a deliciously pleasurable undertone to her aroused organs and every time his finger buzzed over her clit she felt all of her senses kick up a notch. It was a rhythm that was building something intense inside of her and her voice started to betray her excitement.

She heard Claus' labored breathing mixing with her own and felt him kissing her breast hungrily. The intensity of her emotions and her building pleasure was amplifying Claus' touch. It felt like something was about to completely take over her body.

Just as her body was arching on the cusp of something really powerful; and her desires, her arousal, her love, and her hunger were about to burst out of her body like a physical thing- she was suddenly overwhelmed by a darkness. She didn't know what it was but her emotions were already so elevated that she was simply terror stricken by the darkness. She started to sob.

She sobbed uncontrollably. Hysterically. She suddenly felt so vulnerable she couldn't function. She rolled away from Claus and balled up.

Claus leaned over and pulled her back to him. "What's going on?" he asked. "Did I hurt you? Are you okay?"

Lavi could hear the uncertain fear in his voice and clutched tightly at his arm. She rolled away again, pulling his arm with her.

"I don't know," she replied shakily. "All of a sudden I couldn't stand being touched." She didn't tell him the rest; she didn't tell him how she had almost shoved him off the bed out of desperation, just to get away. She lay facing away from him for a few minutes. The silence in the room had a cooling effect on her body and her emotions.

Lavi rolled over again and draped her arm over Claus' side. "I'm okay now," she said. She kissed his chest. "I'm sorry."

Claus wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly to him. "It's alright," he said. "I still don't really know what I'm doing. I'm just thankful you can tell me what you like."

Lavi blushed. "It's really kind of embarrassing," she said. "I don't know what I want but my body seems to." She paused, "But I trust you. If I didn't trust you I don't think I could let myself try to tell you what to do."

Claus frowned. "That doesn't make much sense. You trust me enough to direct me? Shouldn't it be you trust me enough to be directed?"

Lavi did her best to shrug but the motion was lost against Claus' body. "I don't know how else to describe it. It feels… shameful for me to tell you how much I liked having your finger up inside of me. It really surprised me how much I liked having your tongue pressed against me down there. That's why I pulled your head up, I don't think I'm ready to be that vulnerable yet, to let you see and smell and taste something so… personal."

Claus remained silent but kissed the side of her arm and shoulder.

Lavi rolled so she could face him again and stroked his cheek. "What you did tonight was really amazing Claus. I feel… so incredibly close to you just now. I like being in your arms and I like sharing myself with you even though I'm not ready for everything just yet," she said.

Claus kissed her forehead and put his head down next to hers. He started rubbing his palm up and down the side of her body.

"But just a minute ago you were something else entirely."

Lavi pulled the sheets back over herself and Claus. "I don't know what that was. It was terrible for the few minutes it lasted, but before that, and after it were both wonderful." Though in truth while she was feeling somewhat euphoric she still tried hard not to tremble. There was still something tugging in the back of her mind but for now she wanted to reassure Claus and try and enjoy something she knew was hidden from the rest of the world. This was their love, and right now there was nothing in the world separating them, not even their clothes.

She gently pulled Claus hand back down to her thighs and then pressed his hand carefully against her bush and the top of her lips then pulled herself closer against him. "I feel older all of a sudden," she whispered.

"It's probably because we've been living together for so long and not seeing the obvious."

"Probably," agreed Lavi.

Claus yawned and was quiet.

"Do you think that will happen again?" she heard him ask after a while.

"I don't know." Sleep was thick in her voice now and the warmth pouring out of Claus was making her even more drowsy. Even the pressure of his hand pressed generously against her sex was making her tired in a trusting lover sort of way. "I hope not," she replied.

Claus breathed quietly while Lavi started to sink into sleep. "I love you," she heard him say.

"I love you too," she mumbled just before plunging into dreams.

--

Claus was staring out the window watching the daylight try and creep in through the side of the blinds when Lavi stirred next to him. The sheets had fallen down to her waist and his attention was diverted to the gentle curve of her body. He touched her softly and traced over her skin with his finger tips.

Lavi rolled onto her back, exposing her naked breast to the cool morning air. Her eyes opened and slowly focused on Claus. He suddenly had the most amazing smile she had ever seen.

"Good morning," he said, pressing his lips against hers.

"Good morning," she replied, pulling on him to keep him pressed against her. "Keep me warm for a little longer," she said, curving an arm around him and stroking his back.

Claus chuckled, "Alright," he said, kissing her under her eye. "But not too long, we need to get up."

"You aren't going to Moran's this morning are you?" asked Lavi, sleep still pulling gently at her.

"I'll go tomorrow." Claus reached under the sheets and put his hand on her stomach. He kissed her again, deeper this time. "I know I tell you this a lot Lavi, but you are so beautiful to me."

Lavi smiled and kissed him on the arm. "I love you," she said. "I love how you look at me; even your eyes tell me that I'm beautiful."

Claus nodded and put his head down next to hers.

"I know I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world, but you never let me feel insecure about myself or unsure about your feelings towards me," continued Lavi. "That's a really amazing feeling." She pulled him into another kiss.

"Alright," said Claus after another minute. "I guess we should get up." He rolled over and stood up from the bed.

Lavi moved over and flopped onto her back, watching Claus walk over to the window. He had such a strong body and she would definitely enjoy looking at it more often in the future. She was reminded of how Claus would look at her when she was naked herself. There was such a fierce desire in his eyes, almost a longing. Yet they were still warm and kind. She didn't feel like something to be consumed, but instead like partner when he would look at her like that.

She got up from the bed walked over to stand behind him. She put her arms around him and clasped her hands flatly against his lower stomach.

"Want to take a shower?" he asked her.

"Sure," she replied, kissing the back of his shoulder.

Claus turned and kissed her back quickly before going over to one of the cabinets in the room and grabbing a pair of towels and a washrag. He threw one around his waist and tossed the other to Lavi and then quietly stepped out into the hallway.

Lavi wrapped herself in the towel and quickly followed after him. In the hall she could hear Emit snoring in the other room. She waited before Claus came out of the living room with a change of clothes. She suddenly remembered she had forgotten her own clothes and quickly dashed back into her room to get a change for herself.

She quietly slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a soft click. Claus was leaning inside the shower curtain trying to get the water warm before they got in. She stripped off her towel and gave Claus a playful swat on the backside. He went absolutely rigid and slowly turned to face her. His expression was bloody priceless. She pointed at the shower. "In," she said, trying desperately not to burst out into laughter.

"Yes ma'am," he replied, grinning like an idiot.

Lavi pecked him on the cheek and then carefully pulled off the tape from his midsection. Claus grunted a few times but otherwise was no worse for the ware.

He pulled back the shower curtain to let Lavi in then followed after her.

--

Alistia clicked the lock to their front door. She slung her flight bag over her shoulder and joined Tatiana at the base of their porch.

"Nervous?" asked Tatiana.

"A little."

"Me too."

The two girls walked out to the road in front of their home and waited patiently.

After a few minutes they heard the throaty roar of a heavy lift vanship. They looked and saw the large craft approaching from the western side of the crater. The vanship grew steadily larger and very soon it was settling in front of them. The side door opened and two armed marines jumped out.

"Captain Wisler and Lieutenant Agrew," said the one on the left. He saluted smartly. "We will be in charge of your security during your weekly flights to and from Avery Air Station."

The girls both returned the salute wordlessly and stepped into the heavy transport. Earth and grass swept outwards as the powerful engines thrust the craft up into the morning air.

--

Lavi was busily scrubbing Claus' shaggy hair. She hadn't really known what to expect when she got into the shower with him and was a little surprised when he picked up the bottle of shampoo and dumped some into his hand. "Is this enough?" he had asked. She shook her head and giggled. "You need a lot more than that." She was relieved that he hadn't pulled her hair.

Having Claus wash her hair for her was actually something of a turn on and she had pressed herself very close to him while he massaged his fingers through her hair. He rinsed her hair carefully and then picked up a bar of soap and thoroughly lathered up a wash rag. He had pulled her out of the water stream and kissed her playfully on the mouth before carefully scrubbing her neck and shoulders and then the rest of her.

Lavi had blushed through some of it, but then Claus squatted down and picked up her foot and started washing it. "You know," he had said. "There isn't any part of you that I don't adore. I love every little piece- good, bad, dirty, clean, whatever." He finished washing her feet and legs and kissed her thigh. Lavi had been running her hand through his hair the whole time.

"I don't know what I do to deserve such love, Claus," she had said. "You've shown me something this morning and last night that I just didn't know existed in you."

Claus was silent but had looked up at her approvingly.

Now it was her turn.

"Claus you have almost as much hair as I do," she teased as she washed him, kissing him while his eyes were closed.

"Maybe I should get it cut," he said, eyes still closed. "Would you like me with shorter hair?"

"I don't know," she replied while Claus ducked back under the torrent of water and rinsed all the shampoo out of his hair. He rubbed his face and opened his eyes.

"Well if you want me to I will, I don't really care either way."

Lavi shrugged. "We'll see," she said. "Maybe just a trim for now."

Claus laughed. "Alright."

Lavi grabbed the washcloth and lathered it up again. She was more timid than Claus when it came to washing him but she found that she actually enjoyed it and realized why he had said what he had.

"You were right," she said while they stood holding on to each other under the spray of water.

"About what?"

"I feel just like you do."

Claus smiled but cocked his head to the side.

Lavi shook her head and pulled herself more tightly against him. "I love you, and I trust you. I know I've always trusted you but today it just feels different."

"What do you mean?"

Lavi thought for a moment. "I don't know. I just feel… safer all of a sudden. You love me even when I'm not at my best, even when I'm dirty and you're washing everything away. When I woke up today I wasn't sure if all of this was a good idea, but I feel differently now."

"I'm glad," said Claus warmly. He smiled again at her and kissed her deeply.

She responded and kissed him back furiously.

His hand slipped from her shoulder to her breast where it lingered briefly before slipping down between her thighs.

Lavi bit enticingly at his lip and then again at his neck then reached down to grasp his swollen member.

His fingers slipped back and forth across her lips and soon she was flooded with arousal again.

Lavi carefully slid her hand back and forth along his shaft while he pressed a finger against her clit. His fingers continued to play with her and she felt one of them pressing up inside of her. She moaned and bit at his shoulder while she played with him more intensely.

The water pouring down her body was starting to feel particularly good. In fact everything suddenly felt particularly good, like her whole body was starting to radiate.

"You feel so good, Claus," she said in a husky voice. "Why do you always do such amazing things?" She moved her whole body against him and continued to make soft moaning noises.

Lavi was totally lost in the warm water pouring down her body and the intense glowing pleasure that was growing between her legs and spreading out to the rest of her.

Then suddenly it all started to feel sick. She pulled Claus' hand away from her but fought the urge to push herself away from him entirely. "Stop," she said hoarsely, trying hard to keep her emotions under control.

Claus was silent but stopped.

Lavi tried desperately not to cry but the tears still came. She felt so wretched for wanting to be far from him after he had been so loving to her. She was torn between desperation and devotion and couldn't handle it. She leaned hard into him and sobbed quietly into his chest.

It wasn't as terrifying this time though. She quickly regained herself and looked up to see Claus staring at the tile on the wall. "I'm sorry," she said.

Claus was still silent and still content to keep looking at the wall.

Lavi dropped her head and pressed her forehead into his shoulder.

"It's okay," he said after a minute.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," replied Lavi. "I want to be able to share myself with you; I don't want to be like this every time."

"What is it exactly that happens?" he asked.

Lavi shook her head. "I don't really want to talk about it right now," she said. "We should probably get out before anyone else needs to get in here."

Claus nodded and reached down to turn off the water.

Lavi noticed Claus' still erect penis and patted it gently. "Sorry," she said again.

Claus chuckled. "It's alright."

"I know you didn't get angry but I still feel really guilty. You seem to know what to do for me but I don't know how I can make you feel like you make me feel."

"It's really alright Lavi," he said again. "One thing at a time. Maybe next time." He winked at her pulled back the shower curtain.

--

Henna was waiting by the bathroom door. She _really_ had to go. Luckily she heard the water click off just as she got to the door and a few minutes later Claus emerged followed by Lavi.

"Good morning," said Claus cheerfully.

"Hey Claus," replied Henna. "Hey Lavi," she said, winking at the other girl.

Lavi blushed and hurried past them into the kitchen.

"All yours," said Claus, stepping aside to let her through.

Alvis woke with a start. She had been dreaming about Claus again. She reached down and touched the damp spot between her legs.

"Not again," she grumbled. She sighed and sat up in bed, noticing her extra pillow was lying next to her. The last few nights since she had slept with Claus on the couch, she had been having intensely sexual dreams about him. She was just glad she hadn't started shouting in her sleep, she didn't know if she could face that kind of embarrassment.

"Lavi's right," she said to herself as she got out of bed to change. "I need to get a handle on my emotions."

Alvis threw on a pair of work pants and a more fitted shirt she had gotten from Lavi and walked out into the hall to the bathroom. She saw the light on under the door and waited a few minutes for whoever was in there to finish.

She heard the toilet flush and the door opened to reveal Henna. She was still a little bleary eyed and smirked at Alvis.

"Sorry," she said. "Lavi and Claus took their sweet time showering together and I really, really had to go when I got up."

Henna brushed by her and headed into the living room to wake her dad.

Alvis sighed and pushed open the bathroom door.

--

The flight to Avery Air Station took less time than Tatiana expected. Looking out the window she could see a tight network of roads crisscrossing between buildings of varying sizes. To the north she saw a particularly large building with a long strangely painted road that only ran a few kilometers and didn't seem to go anywhere at all- it was perfectly straight and just stopped on both ends.

They flew in low over some of the buildings and promptly dropped to ground level, landing harshly.

"Sorry about that folks," said the pilot over the intercom, "Windshear forced us down a bit prematurely."

Tatiana and Alistia gathered their gear and waited for the marine corporal to open the side panel.

Stepping out into the mid morning air they noticed it was still cool out, even with Avery Air Station being surrounded by mountain ranges that blocked most air currents.

"Alright," said Alistia, "Week one."

Tatiana nodded and the two followed the marine squad as they were led across the airfield.

The marines set a brisk pace. Both Tatiana and Alistia hurried to catch up with the corporal.

"How many people are here on the base?" asked Alistia.

"Avery isn't an official airbase ma'am," replied the corporal. "We are a research facility. On staff are a number of scientists and engineers as well as a battalion of marines."

"What about pilots?" asked Tatiana.

The corporal shrugged. "Only a handful, including you ma'am. There are elements from the 3rd tactical air wing but they number less than a dozen craft."

They arrived at a large field office and the corporal opened the door for them. They stepped inside and were hit by a sudden blast of cold air.

"The Lieutenant Colonel is this way ma'am."

The group walked down a short hallway and entered an office door with the words 'Lt. Col. Ratzec' stenciled boldly on the door.

The colonel regarded them silently as they shuffled in and waited to speak until the door was closed

"At ease marines," he said. "Captain Wisla, Lieutenant Agrew, welcome to Avery Air Station. I am Colonel Ratzec, the commanding officer here. I understand you two are to be attached to one of our development teams."

"Yes sir," replied Alistia. "We are the test pilots."

The colonel nodded. "Very well, on your way out my assistant will have you sign the Capital Act and then show you to your quarters."

"As in the Capital City sir?"

Colonel Ratzec was stone faced when he replied. "Capital Punishment."

Both girls blinked.

"Dismissed," said Ratzec.

Everyone saluted. Ratzec returned it and watched everyone file out the door.

Outside Alistia and Tatiana met with a junior aid and leafed through several documents entailing both their legal obligation as well as the proper chain of command regarding their deployment to Avery.

"Standard legal fare," said the aid- a pretty young sergeant with tea colored eyes. "You are forbidden to discuss any technical, flight, or operational related subjects regarding activities on this base. You are limited to discretionary personal remarks only regarding you work here. While on base you are permitted to discuss matters regarding your work on a discretionary bases to technical crews and supervisors as well as the base commander. There are several projects going on and everyone is on a need to know basis."

The girls signed and initialed in several locations and then handed the documents to the aid who then sealed them into an envelope and placed the documents in a nearby safe.

"It's really sounds a lot worse than it is," she said, turning back to Tatiana. "We've never had more than a few minor incidents that resulted in non-official reprimands so don't worry too much about it."

Alistia and Tatiana were led back out the building and out to the parade ground; their marine guard had already left.

"You will each have a dorm to yourself in the pilot's barracks. I know this is unusual for flight crews, but it is necessary to compartmentalize as much as possible on this base." The aid pointed at a small squat slate gray structure some two hundred meters off to the west. "You will find out pretty quick just how compartmentalized Avery really is. Don't be too surprised if you get the cold shoulder more than once. It isn't anything personal, everyone else is just very preoccupied with their own projects. I think you will find the pilot's and maintenance crews fairly affable though."

The three girls marched down to the dorm building and walked around it. "Further to the west is where you will be working. Hanger three is our largest building on the field. It houses several experimental aircraft as well as several very specialized facilities. You will find out more about those tomorrow as I am not allowed access to that information. But from what I've seen of them they are unlike anything you have ever flown."

"We've already read the technical literature for them," replied Alistia, looking over at Tatiana who nodded in agreement.

Behind them a shrieking engine noise came up out of nowhere. They all turned and saw a large carryall carefully drop onto the marshaling yard and spin down.

Carryalls were used for very heavy aerial lifting and their engines had to spin at speeds far in excess of normal vanship engines due to airframe constraints. Their was a limit to how big a claudia engine could be built, so instead it had to cycle faster. Before the destruction of the Guild, warships were typically used to transport heavy materials. Now Anatoure and Dusith engineers could only build smaller claudia engines fit for vanships and heavy transports.

"I never realized how loud those were," said Tatiana in amazement.

"They can get even louder. That one was probably only carrying at seventy percent of its capacity."

They watched the carryall disgorge a large shipping container from its dull blue underbelly. A deck crew swarmed about the machine for several minutes before a tractor drove up and towed the container away. The carryall's engines spun back to life again but never reached the same high pitched wail as before. It flew off sounding like a drunken banshee.

"We sometimes get as many as a dozen heavy shipments in a week," said the aid.

Alistia raised an eyebrow. "Where are the guards?" she asked.

"The marine presence here tries to stay low key." The aid resumed walking towards the dormitories while the other two caught up. "Perimeter security is tight but once inside guards are only posted at key access points. There are a few patrols of course, and a response squad of MP's is never more than a minute away by truck. The civilians who work here are required to wear uniforms with special insignia. They are never addressed by any sort of rank but it does help keep everything in order."

Alistia and Tatiana looked at each other and shrugged.

--

Alvis was inside a side hanger at the parts merchant's. Claus was in the main building attached to it and had been gone for several minutes. She walked around idly and hummed to herself. The hanger was not terribly well lit but there was enough daylight pouring in through the windows that she could clearly see several partially deconstructed vanships and a pair of stripped down engines.

Off to her left a door slammed. She turned expecting to see Claus. Instead she saw a familiar young man whose name she struggled for a moment to place.

"Nathan?" she exclaimed.

"Oh, hey Alvis. Have you seen my dad around?"

Alvis blinked. "He is next door talking to Claus."

Nathan nodded slowly and walked over to sit down on a bench close to where she was standing. He picked up a pneumatic hammer and spun it around as if it were a pistol.

"Did you need him?" queried Alvis.

He shook his head.

Alvis shrugged and resumed her slow stroll around the workshop.

"Where's Dex?" she finally asked after a few minutes.

"He's at home. His mom is sick again."

"I'm sorry," replied Alvis automatically. She paused and frowned. "I never knew she was sick."

Nathan shrugged. "He doesn't like to talk about it. It's been a hard couple of years for him since her illness set in."

"I'm sorry" said Alvis again, this time she meant it.

Nathan shrugged again. "So what are you and Claus doing here?"

"Claus needs a centrifuge for a customer who flew in last night," replied Alvis with a touch of irritation in her voice.

It was Nathan's turn to frown now. "You don't sound too pleased to be here."

Alvis chewed on her lip while she thought. She looked up and caught him staring at her. He didn't look away.

"How old are you Nathan?" she asked.

"Sixteen," he replied, cocking his head a little to the side. "Why?"

"I never knew you were younger than Claus," she replied. "How old is Dex?"

"Seventeen as of a month ago."

"But Dex has a thing for Lavi doesn't he?"

Nathan nodded. "He's been pretty obvious about it for a while."

"I know how he feels," murmured Alvis.

Nathan remained respectfully quiet.

"Why are you in here anyways?" asked Alvis suddenly.

"It's my dad's shop. Why wouldn't I be in here?"

Alvis walked over to sit on the desk next to him. Nathan noticed how her steps had a slight mincing motion. She looked like she had something on her mind but instead she kept looking about the shop.

"I love Claus," she finally said, folding her hands in her lap, not entirely sure why she was so readily admitting it to him.

Nathan continued to remain silent. After a minute Alvis started idly bouncing her feet against the table leg.

"Claus loves Lavi instead though."

Nathan spoke up finally. "But back at the consortium air field we thought you were with him now."

"I wish," she replied. "I really do. I didn't think to correct you because I wanted to pretend for a minute that maybe it was true."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Why are you in here watching me?"

"I'm not watching you."

"You came in here looking for your dad, I told you where he was, and you sat down and haven't stopped looking at me since."

"Does that upset you?"

"I- no. It doesn't upset me," replied Alvis, suddenly feeling very off balance. "I'm sorry I got snappish."

"Do you want to tell me the rest?" offered Nathan.

Alvis thought for a minute. "Would you really want to hear it?"

Nathan nodded.

Alvis suddenly felt very small and vulnerable. "I don't really know how to start," she said. "I love Claus. Claus loves Lavi. That's the big picture."

"The big picture doesn't explain a lot," ventured Nathan in turn. He watched while the younger girl sighed and shook her head.

"Lavi loves Claus back, but she is a little more guarded."

"Aha!" exclaimed Nathan suddenly. "So she won't put out."

Alvis glared at him. "That's a terrible way to put it."

"But that's exactly what's happening isn't it?"

"Before last night, yes."

"Oh? So she finally caved?"

Alvis looked away. "I don't really know. I know they spent the night in her bed last night and took a shower together this morning."

Nathan laughed and smirked. Then all of a sudden he frowned. "Dex is gonna be devastated. He really thought Claus and Lavi weren't anything of an official couple."

"You don't have to tell him everything," suggested Alvis.

"You're right. I should just tell him to try and forget about it."

"That won't be easy."

"How do you know?"

"Because that's what I'm trying to do right now, and it isn't easy."

"You just need some help," replied Nathan.

Alvis' thoughts took a sudden change of course as Nathan spoke. She looked up at him with a slight simpering smile. "Maybe," she said.

Nathan quickly leaned over and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

Alvis was caught with her lips parted just a little and suddenly felt Nathans' tongue flick against hers. She pulled away out of surprise more than anything else.

"You hardly know me!" she exclaimed.

He shrugged and leaned in to kiss her again, this time he just briefly touched their lips together. "It helps you forget, doesn't it?"

She couldn't look back into his eyes but she nodded just a little. .

He gently kissed the corner of her mouth.

"Don't tell anyone," whispered Alvis.

"I won't," replied Nathan.

Alvis closed her eyes and drank deep.

--

Henna was sitting in her navi's seat looking over her instrumentation panel. Her father and Lavi were talking off to the side. They had already pulled the mounting bracket and the fuel lines out from the rear of the vanship so they could put in the new centrifuge as soon as Claus got back.

In the distance she could hear the buzz of an approaching vanship and turned around to look out the shop door. A minute passed and the buzz turned into an idling drone before a vanship hummed up to the grassy lawn in front of the shop. It set down gently and she watched Claus and Alvis dismount.

There was a flurry of activity lasting long enough for Lavi and Claus to attach the new centrifuge while Emit worked under the engine cowling to bleed fuel into the system.

"No leaks," said Lavi. "Give it some pressue."

Emit opened the fuel valve all the way.

"Alright," she said. "Button up the engine and get it started. Gotta do the only test that counts."

Henna started setting her instrumentation and then stood up to lean over and start setting her father's as well while he helped close everything up.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Henna turned to see Alvis leaning over the edge of her cockpit.

"Sure," she replied.

"Why did you kiss Claus?"

Henna smirked. That wasn't a question she was expecting. "Because I wanted to."

"That's it?" replied the younger girl skeptically.

"Yep. I'd do more if I thought I could get away with it, but I don't want to mess up what those two have."

"But you don't even know him."

Henna shrugged. "I don't want to marry him," she said. "I just wanted to see what he was like. He's a good looking guy and I'm something of a free spirit."

Alvis was not prepared for that answer. "So you just stole a kiss from him because you thought he was cute?"

Henna somehow managed to smirk and frown at the same time. "I wouldn't say I stole it exactly. He didn't push me a way, but he didn't respond very… intensely either. I think he was just surprised is all."

"Would you do it again?"

Henna wasn't at all sure where the girl was going with this line of questioning. "I'd do it over again sure, but I'm not going to go down there right now and try to kiss him in front of Lavi. That would be very… crass."

Alvis fidgeted and looked intently down at the instrumentation panel. "I want to try something different," she said more to herself than to Henna.

"Different is always good," replied the older girl. "But be careful."

"Careful of what?"

Henna looked down. "I could have easily caused a lot of problems when I kissed Claus. I knew there was something between those two but I wasn't really sure what. I didn't think I would ever see either of them again so I just did it on a whim."

Alvis listed her head to the side and peered at Henna with very large eyes. Henna flinched.

"I'm a flirt," said Henna after a moment. "But I don't like to hurt people and I don't try and steal men that aren't mine. I just want to… sample a few."

Alvis giggled. "You make them sound like pies."

"Do you like pies?"

The younger girl nodded vigorously.

Henna smiled. "Maybe that's a bad way to say it. Claus and Lavi are happy together. I'm not ready to let just one man have me. I want to see what there is to offer out there."

"How old are you?"

"Why don't you guess?"

Alvis put her finger to her mouth in thought. "Younger than Claus?"

Henna shook her head. "I'm older than him, but I won't tell you by how much." She winked.

Henna set her claudia pressure to "idle under" and hit the firing switch. The engine popped and roared to life.

Alvis covered her ears. "Man that's loud." Her voice was lost to everyone else.

Lavi frowned. "That's awfully loud for a vanship."

Emit smirked. "I've modified a few things." He had to practically shout it into Lavi's ear. She nodded in response.

Henna reached over and dumped their solution pressure and returned the engine to neutral. "I think that's it."

--

Claus stood between Lavi and Alvis as they watched Emit ease the vanship up into the air. Henna blew him a kiss and he gave her a half salute in return.

Alvis turned away and skipped back to the house. Claus and Lavi lingered in front of the workshop a while longer. She opened the door and turned to watch them but decided to leave them alone instead. The house was cool inside and she shut the door with an emphatic click. She had a few things on her mind anyways.

--

Duke Maddosein sat comfortably behind his desk. The large blood colored desk had been in his family for generations and was made from an extremely rare type of wood. Usually its face was bare save for a few scraps of paper so as to show off its impressive engravings but today nearly every inch of it was covered.

"So Exile is back," he said guardedly.

"We have several sources confirming this sir," replied the sharply dressed man standing across from him. He wore an Anatoure Navy uniform with the crest of Commander embroidered on his right collar.

Maddosein nodded. "Very well. Cancel the range finders. We already know a few things about Exile. I'll have my people calculate its orbit."

"I don't know how the others will react to that," replied the commander.

"It doesn't matter. The Empress gave me authority where Exile is concerned. We don't know why it's back but I intend to get some answers. And I intend to get those answers with as much prudence and as little hassle as humanly possible."

"Of course, sir."

"Commander Richter you are to ensure total secrecy until it is either impossible to continue to do so, or I inform you to do otherwise. I'm going to give you some latitude for this assignment but I don't want to start hearing strange reports about people gone missing. You are to be discreet, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir, very clear."

Duke Maddosein dismissed the Commander with a wave. Richter saluted smartly and turned on his heels to march out.

When he was alone the Duke leaned his chin into his hands and exhaled sharply through his teeth. This was going to lead to war somehow. He just knew it. Exile still had too much mystique surrounding it. He picked up the highly ornate phone on the desk next to him and made a few calls.

--

Sweat was beading along his forehead and pooling hotly along the side of his neck. Dio wiped at it passively. He still wasn't accustomed to sweating like this.

Days in the desert felt like life in an oven while nights were unbelievably cold.

He brushed at his forehead again. This time sweat and grime left a dirty smear. He shrugged trying to mentally ignore it- he swore he would never be clean again.

"Dio!"

He turned and saw a woman jogging over to him. Her features were washed out shadows in the failing daylight. She caught up with him but was panting heavily.

"Catch your breath first," he said quietly.

She nodded and stopped and took several deep breaths and forced her heart to calm.

"I'm afraid none of us are used to this type of work," he said while he waited.

The woman nodded, still trying to slow her breathing.

"Alright, what is it?"

"The deep water cores, they're working!"

This was good news. For several days now the remnants of the Guild had been subsisting on stored water.

"Would you take me there please?" asked Dio.

She nodded and smiled.

Dio dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Lead the way," he said, motioning for her to go first.

The water cores were large powered bores that bit deep into the earth and siphoned out water from the cold underground cisterns. The Guild had access to several very old geological survey maps as well as ground penetrating radar devices. Finding the water was easy. Tapping in to it was a different matter entirely.

"Sir?"

The voice behind Dio was barely a whisper. He turned to see an aging engineer. The mark on his forehead denoting his purpose was bright and shimmered slightly even after his long years of service.

"Glasken," said Dio. "As fragile as ever I see."

Glasken snorted.

"How long until we can start pumping water?"

Glasken flared his eyebrows. "Whenever you like." He reached over and produced a canteen from the folds of his cloak and held it shakily under a faucet. He turned a valve and some of the clearest water Dio had ever seen surged out like a transparent snake.

The old man smiled knowingly.

"Do you know we don't even have to filter it?"

Dio whistled. "Some of the cleanest water I've ever seen and it comes from the middle of the desert. Who knew!" he smiled enormously and clapped the older man on the back. "Well done sir, well done!"

"Enough of this- go get the others."

Dio stopped with his mouth still open just as it was about to form more words. He snapped it closed.

"Alright I'll go and get the others."

Dio turned and walked back to their base camp spread out across several sprawling sand dunes. Evening was already fast collapsing across the desert and the pyre lights from the settlement were staring to spark up across the waves of sand.

--

"We need more practice at celebrating" remarked Dio passively. He was standing on the top of a dune a hundred meters away from the edge of camp. Next to him stood Glasken and the guildswoman who had brought him to the water bores.

"What do you think, Darian?"

The woman shrugged and upended her canteen into the sand. "All we did before was work. We still have a lot of work ahead of us too. I don't think it makes much difference."

Glasken snorted.

Dio turned as if to say something to him but thought better of it.

The night out in the desert was actually a very dark shade of blue- the starlight filtered down through the darkened sky and tinted everything in a deep prussian hue.

"Master Dio?"

Dio turned and saw Van, his intelligence officer. "You know I hate it when you call me that," he hissed.

Van ignored his comment. "I have a source in the Imperial Court who tells me that Kirov is planning a move against his father."

"I thought I instructed you to remove all of our spies."

"Ah, but you forget that we are the only shield you have left. The population of this planet hates us, the government doesn't really trust us, and we are now very small in number."

"They hate us because we meddle, that is why I asked you to pull everyone out."

"Meddling is our job," admonished Van. "Guild isn't even our title. It is Planetary Engineer. Our purpose is to maintain this world and its populace. Your dear sister just forgot that we were supposed to be regents, not tyrants."

Dio flinched at the mention of his sister. He was still torn about his feelings for her. She had been his sister, and something of a mother to him, but she had also been manipulative, and a destroyer.

"I am not my sister Van, nor do I need to be reminded of what she was or was not. It is because of my sister that I think we should remove ourselves as completely as possible from the population for a while. Let a generation or two pass, let them forget."

"What if Kirov manages to start another war?" Van's eyes thinned to slits, making him look like a hooded serpent.

Dio frowned. He looked over to Darian and Glasken. They nodded and left him with Van. He noticed a long slice of red tangled loosely in Darian's unfurled white tapestry of hair. He reached out and grasped at it without thinking.

Darian whirled at the contact but remained silent.

Dio blinked a few times. "I like it," he said.

She gave him a half smile but felt her cheeks turning color. "Always so honest, Dio. And always right to the point."

He tilted his head to the side and grinned boyishly.

Darian shook her head and giggled as she left him with his spy.

Glasken had already left wordlessly.

"So," said Dio flatly, turning to face Van again. "You say Kirov wants war. How do you know?"

"He has been secretly sending Dusith's old military commanders back across the border. They haven't done much yet but they are slowly rebuilding- and not the type of rebuilding the Empress has in mind."

"What does his father say to this?"

"His father doesn't know. Kirov thinks his father is growing weak and is already planning to remove him somehow. He has positioned several of his most trusted contacts in places where they can quickly assume power throughout their government."

Dio sighed. "How deep does your spy ring go?"

Van allowed himself a brief but feral grin. "You need not concern yourself with that Master Dio. We are positioned where we can hear the most."

"How soon until he makes a move against his father?"

"Hard to say," replied Van offhandedly. "It would not be tomorrow, but it could be next month. He isn't completely positioned yet but he is close."

"What do you recommend?"

"Remove him- immediately."

"Of course you would. You always think about things in the simplest yet least practical manner."

"Killing him would not be practical?"

"Killing him would be an egregious breach of trust of the Empress."

"She need not know it was us Master Dio. I could arrange for an accident, or for a botched burglary."

Dio quickly cracked his neck to the side and looked up at the canopy of stars. "Is this really the only answer?"

"Would you rather we bring him here and let you persuade him to do otherwise?"

Dio laughed. "No, I doubt that would work. Unbridled ambition is as deadly as any machine pistol. He would declare us the common enemy of all the world and call for our extermination. I doubt he knows we are still around."

"That is indeed correct. The Empress has told no one of your audience with her."

Dio was surprised and just a little bit hurt. He had hoped to be able to use her to gain at least a modicum of trust with the rest of the world. But still no one knew they had survived.

"We may need to make some sort of appearance in the near future then. I don't want people finding us flatfooted like this."

"That might be for the best," replied Van. "At least then no one would see us as a threat."

"And assassinating someone like Kirov vis Leover will endear us to them?"

Van shrugged. "We could kidnap him and hold him indefinitely if you like. But he would have no freedom and be an unwelcomed guest all the while as well as a drain on already meager resources."

Dio knew that, of course, Van was not serious. Killing young Leover would probably be the only course of action they could take for some time, and by the time they had other options available it might be too late.

"We don't know much about what Kirov is having his friends do across the border do we?"

"No, they are spread out over a huge region. There still aren't many new settlements out there. We found a few villages but we found more barracks, training grounds, and war industries."

"Why not just tell the Empress and let her deal with it?"

Van shrugged again. "Because the Empress wouldn't believe it. She has a soft spot for Governor Leover. He rarely objects to her laws regarding his Dusith minority and he is a genuinely humble and likeable gentleman. She would be very hesitant to insult him so thoroughly as to accuse his own son of plotting against him and the Anatoure Empire."

"Dusith is hardly a minority. Even with all of the migratory deaths they are still almost forty percent of the current population now." Dio sat down on the sand and dug his hand into it- it was still plenty hot from the long day under the sun. It would help keep him warm during the cold night. Already a chill was starting to set in.

"And why do you think the Empress wants to start relocating them as soon as possible? Anatoure can't support such a huge population boom."

Dio nodded to himself. Van's point was made. If the Empress put too much pressure on Governor Leover the Dusith population would revolt. In some places the population strain was already being felt. Not much, but enough that people knew hard times might lay just over the horizon. But if Kirov were left alive he would probably push them all in to war anyways.

"Alright," he finally said. "Take out Kirov vis Leover. But I want it messy. This cannot look professional. This has to look like something we could never be involved with."

Van's lips pulled taught in a hungry leer exposing sharpened teeth.

--

Alistia was alone in her room staring up at the ceiling trying to decompress from the day. She had her blinds drawn down tight to filter the harsh nighttime illumination that Avery kept. They hadn't seen the new aircraft yet but they had covered everything else to see at Avery.

The barrackers weren't like their home back in Nokia; they weren't even like the cabins on the Sylvana. Here everything was either dirty yet tidy, or incredibly sterile and efficient.

The commandant ran things like a well kept watch but didn't seem to like a lot of personal initiative, unlike Alex Rowe who had routinely relied on the independent judgment of his subordinates.

She was nervous about being the first crew to actually fly the machine but luckily that was still a few days away. They had at least one assent planned for before she and Tatiana would rotate back to Nokia for a week and she kept imagining them embedded in the parade ground as an impressive, if not messy crater.

She sighed and tried to blank her quickly running mind before it spun out of control. She made a deal with her imagination- if she could get some sleep she would let it run free whenever it wanted to think about Claus.

It seemed to work because within ten minutes she was completely lost to sleep and totally oblivious to deep throaty roar of a heavy lift vanship laboriously droning away from the eastern dustoff.


End file.
